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THEODORE ROOSEVELT 





THE MAN 
AS I KNEW HIM 






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ILLUSTRATED 



FERDINAND C.IGLEHART,D.D 




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THEODORE 
ROOSEVELT 

THE MAN AS I KNEW HIM 



FERDINAND COWLE IGLEHART, D. D. 
Author of "The Speaking Oak" 



New York. 

THE CHRISTIAN HERALD 

1919 



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> — / U 



COPi'ElGHT, 1919 

The Cheistian Hebald 



©CIA530767 

A- v J 



To My Wife and Children 
This Book Is Affectionately Dedicated 



PREFACE 

I HAVE always counted as one of the high- 
est honors, joys and blessings of my life 
the intimate personal friendship of Theo- 
dore Roosevelt for the last twenty-four years: 
As pastor of the Park Avenue Methodist Church 
in New York City, we were associated with him 
in his work as Police Commissioner' in closing 
Sunday saloons and were engaged with him in 
the desperate fight against evil and crime in the 
great city. 

Two motives prompted me to write this book. 
First, tor pay a personal tribute of affection to 
him. Every line of this book is an appreciation 
of his great ability and a stream of love flows 
between the lines from beginning to end. I have 
traced him from his birth in the city home 
through the days of his boyhood and early edu- 
cation, to Harvard University; through a series 
of public offices such as no one man ever filled 
outlining the important features of his adminis- 
tration in each, and his mighty influence upon in- 
dividual and national destiny. He destroyed the 
illegal combination of corporations in their con- 



vi PREFACE 

spiracy against the government and saved tlie 
republic from the ruin which they threatened. 
He compelled the rich man and the most influ- 
ential to obey the law as completely as the poor- 
est man, which made him the idol of the com- 
mon people and also of the honest rich. He so 
loved his country that he gave himself abso- 
lutely to its service, as well as his four boys, 
whonj he loved better than his life. Mention 
has been made of his titanic achievement in 
building the Panama Canal. While he was in 
the White House, he revealed to me some of 
the deepest secrets of his heart, which I ques- 
tion whether he ever mentioned to any mortal 
outside of his own family. Some of these are 
quoted in this work, because they contain such 
immortal principles that I know he would like 
to have me tell them to my fellow countrymen. 
We have referred to him as an author with his 
thirty-five splendid volumes and have shown his 
literary style and made quotations from some 
of his books, and have watched him as a natur- 
alist among the flowers and birds, the insects, 
and the big game of the forest, and made a 
record of some of the things he said about them. 
The second reason for writing this book was 
that in some modest way I might hold up this 
magnificent specimen of manhood as a model 
and inspiration to my fellowmen. We look 
into his home and find the ideal husband and 
father whose happiness and rugged virtues have 
sweetened and sanctified the name of home and 



PREFACE vii 

been a blessed inspiration to every borne in tbe 
land. We have referred to bis courage, believ- 
ing bim to be one of tbe bravest men in history. 
We have related the incidents of the fights with 
grizzly bear and man-eating lion, and of his 
standing with both shoes full of blood and mak- 
ing his speech after he had been shot, an act of 
sublime heroism. 

We have told of his confronting the most 
dangerous men and of his moral courage ; of his 
personal and political integrity, which no penny 
of graft ever dared approach and against which 
there was no breath of scandal; of his in- 
domitable industry; of his loyalty personified, 
which burned with such a flame that he set the 
whole nation afire with Americanism and tri- 
umphant democracy. There is here noted his 
lifelong hostility to the saloon, his demand for 
war prohibition, and friendliness to national 
constitutional prohibition, and of his friendli- 
ness to woman suffrage. We have chapters 
which give at length Theodore Eoosevelt as a 
Christian; his article on the Bible, in which he 
holds that it is the basis of individual character 
and of public virtue; his belief in Christ as a 
personal Saviour ; the incident of his joining the 
church, which we received from his old pastor ; 
of him as a practical preacher of righteousness, 
demanding the doing as well as the hearing of 
the Word; his belief in a future life and his 
words on the death of his son, killed in the great 
war. 



viii PREFACE 

Space is given to the estimate of Theo- 
dore Roosevelt by Dr. Albert Shaw, the editor 
of The Review of Reviews, one of the most inti- 
mate friends the Colonel ever had in the 
world, which article was prepared especially for 
this book; and also an editorial in The Outlook 
by Dr. Lyman Abbott, another one of the dear- 
est friends of the Colonel, which he gave me for 
use here. General George W. Goethals gave to 
us for this volume some words on the relation of 
President Roosevelt to the building of the Pan- 
ama Canal. 

The book has been brought down to date and 
an account of his death and funeral services 
have been recorded. The sorrow of the world 
was expressed in cable messages from Presi- 
dent Wilson, the King and Queen of England, 
Lloyd George, Rudyard Kipling and others 
abroad and at home. 

Copious extracts from notable memorial 
services have been furnished by their authors 
for use in this volume, including those of Henry 
Cabot Lodge in Washington, Charles E. 
Hughes, Chauncey Depew, Bishop Luther B. 
Wilson in New York, Gifford Pinchot in Phila- 
delphia, Will H. Hayes in Indianapolis, Chan- 
cellor James R. Day at Albany and Archdeacon 
Carnegie at Westminster Abbey. 

Touching tributes have also been given to us 
by Gen. Leonard Wood, Sec. Franklin K. Lane, 
Cardinal Gibbons, Rabbi H. P. Mendes, Mr. 
John M. Parker, a merchant friend and others. 



PREFACE ix 

[We have devoted a chapter to Colonel Eoose- 
velt's sons and family- with a sketch of their 
life and heroic deeds, and a chapter to what 
the friends of Oyster Bay think and say about 
him, for publication here. 

In estimating Theodore Eoosevelt, I have 
illustrated the various elements of his char- 
acter and life; by many incidents of our per- 
sonal relationship that have never been printed, 
and hence are unknown to any one but himself 
and to me. 

In treating Theodore Roosevelt, the man, as 
I knew him, I have given a concise and yet com- 
prehensive history and biography of my friend 
and all the great events and salient points of his 
character. This volume has been prepared with 
the hope that rich and poor, high and low, politi- 
cal friend and enemy might find interest and 
profit in reading it. Theodore Roosevelt's 
rugged virtues will appeal to every man with 
high hopes and ambitions, looking for the best 
models and desiring to make the most of him- 
self ; to every working man who knows how the 
great leader loved him and worked so hard for 
him; to every man who recognizes how valu- 
able truth and honor and industry are as ele- 
ments of manhood and success ; to every public 
servant, from the humblest office-holder to the 
ruler of the nation, who would scorn a bribe as 
he would a scorpion and give himself up wholly 
to the public good; to every woman who loves 
the name of home; to every young man or 



X PREFACE 

woman who cherishes the highest ideals and 
plans of life. This book is sent out stained with 
my tears and those of the nation; with sorrow 
in our hearts that we shall see his face no more, 
but bright with hope that his spirit will remain, 
with us, and that we shall see him again, and 
breathing a prayer that it may be used for the 
happiness and benefit of our fellowmen, and 
the establishment of Christ's Kingdom on 
earth, to which Theodore Roosevelt, the man 
and the Christian, devoted his life. 

F. C. I. 



TABLE OF CONTENTS 
Chapter Page 

I Washington — Lincoln — Roosevelt . . 23 

II His Birthplace and Boyhood 37 

III At Harvard 59 

IV Member of State Assembly 71 

V Ranch Life 83 

VI Civil Service Commission 95 

VII Police Commissioner of New York . . 107 

VIII Spanish-American War 121 

IX Governor of New York 131 

X The Citizen and the Public Man. . 143 

XI The Vice-Presidency 153 

XII Theodore Roosevelt as President by 

Dr. Albert Shaw 163 

XIII Panama Canal — General Goethals. 181 

XIV Heart Secrets Told in a Walk to 

the White House 193 

XV Interviewed President on Governor 

Hughes' Renomination 203 

XVI Theodore Roosevelt a Hercules — 

Big Stick — Naturalist — Author. 213 
XVII Hercules Continued — Hunter — Ex- 
plorer — Progressive 225 

XVIII Sagamore Hill 245 

XIX Theodore Roosevelt's Sons 259 

XX Friends at Oyster Bay 279 

si 



Xll 



CONTENTS 



Chapter 

XXI 

XXII 

XXIII 

XXIV 

XXV 

XXVI 

XXVII 

XXVIII 
XXIX 

XXX 



XXXT 



XXXII 



Page 

His Religion 291 

Roosevelt and the Bible 307 

Favors Wae and Constitutional 

Prohibition 319 

Roosevelt the Great Heart 329 

His Death 345 

Addresses by Depew and Bishop 

Wilson 357 

Henry Cabot Lodge's Memorial 

Oration 369 

Address by Charles E. Hughes 383 

Estimates of Will H. Hays and 

GiFFORD Pinchot 395 

Estimates of Rev. Dr. Lyman Abbott 

AND of a New York Merchant 

Friend 409 

Estimates of Gen. Leonard Wood — 

Sec. Franklin K. Lane — Rev. Dr. 

J. R. Day 419 

The Great Adventure 429 



WASHINGTON— LINCOLN— ROOSEVELT 



CHAPTER I 
WASHINGTON— LINCOLN— ROOSEVELT 

JULIUS and Augustus Caesar, the great em- 
perors, were deified by the Romans, and they 
perpetuated their names in the months which 
the two emperors had named for themselves — July, 
after Julius, and August, after Augustus. If we were 
giving names to the months in our country nowadays, 
we would call one Washington, another Lincoln, and 
another Roosevelt, the last, of course, for the month 
of June with its roses. The reverence and affection 
of Americans for these three heroes is akin to the de- 
votion of the Romans for the Caesars. 

After the first agonizing cry at the sudden death of 
Theodore Roosevelt there burst forth spontaneously 
from the nation's heart praises of the departed hero 
that reached the borderline of idolatry. Roosevelt 
took his place instantly among the trio of immortals. 
He had been dead but one month and six days when 
the people indicated the place they intended to give 
him in permanent history. They hung up his picture 
on Lincoln's birthday with that of Washington and 
Lincoln. From the Atlantic to the Pacific, from the 
lakes to the gulf, and throughout our island posses- 

23 



24 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

sions, in the halls of art, the palaces of the rich and 
the cottages of the poor, were hung the pictures of 
Washington, Lincoln and Roosevelt. 

These three heroes represented the three important 
eras of the nation's history — Washington, its birth; 
Lincoln, its salvation, and Roosevelt, its perpetuity. 
Washington had been dead only ten years when Lin- 
coln was born, and Roosevelt was a boy six years 
old when Lincoln died, so that the lives of these three 
giants practically span the birth, the growth and the 
glory of the American commonwealth. 

It would be difficult to compare these national 
heroes. They were so singularly adapted to the pe- 
riods in which they lived, and to the tragic services 
they were called upon to perform, that each seems 
complete and incomparable as a leader in his time. 
They were dissimilar in many particulars. Washing- 
ton and Lincoln were each over six feet high ; Roose- 
velt was comparatively short and stout. Washington 
was clean-shaven; Lincoln had a beard, and Roose- 
velt a mustache. 

Washington wore silk stockings and silver shoe 
buckles ; Roosevelt belonged to the silk stocking colony 
in New York and wore fine shoes ; Lincoln never had 
a pair of stockings on his feet till he was a man grown, 
and no shoes except in snowtime, and those rude ones 
made by his father's hand. Washington and Roose- 
velt wore fine clothes ; Lincoln up to the time he was 
twenty-one years of age wore deerskin pants, deerskin 
vest and a coonskin cap with the tail left on, and his 
cabin was surrounded with wolves and bears. Lin- 
coln's father was exceedingly poor; Washington's 
father was in comfortable circumstances; Roosevelt's 
father was counted a millionaire. 

There was not only a difference in surroundings, 



WASHINGTON— LINCOLN— ROOSEVELT 25 

but in mental characteristics, between these heroes. In 
purely intellectual force Washington was perhaps not 
the equal of Lincoln or Roosevelt. Thomas Jefferson, 
Alexander Hamilton, John Marshall and Benjamin 
Franklin possibly had a sturdier type of intellect. 
But Washington's faculties were so evenly balanced 
and true, he was such a great general, such a wise 
statesman, so absolutely devoted to his country, that 
he took a place head and shoulders above them all as 
the leader in the founding of the republic. 

Lincoln had one of the greatest intellects the world 
has ever known. Without schools, books, culture, or 
travel, by the sheer force of his mind and heart, he 
gripped the nation, commanded its armies and navies 
and saved the Union. 

Theodore Roosevelt had a prodigious intellect. He 
did not think so. He insisted that it was only of the 
ordinary type, and that what he had become or done 
was the result of desperately hard work and dogged 
persistency. We decline to accept this estimate of 
him. He was an intellectual prodigy, if there ever 
was one. He had Lincoln's rugged, virile type of 
mind with an added versatility which reading, study, 
writing and travel alone can give. For nearly a score 
of years he did the hard thinking for the statesmen of 
the nation. Political friend and foe waited for him to 
solve the perplexing problems of state and announce 
the result. 

A little over a year ago I called at Colonel Roose- 
velt's office on an important matter, and though the 
outer room was full of those who had appointments to 
meet him, he sent for me to come into his room. * * Take 
that chair, ' ' he said, * ' and pull it up close to mine, and 
sit down and don't say a word to me. I have sent 
for you to come in and sit up close to me. It reminds 



26 THEODOEE KOOSEVELT 

me of the good old times we had, and the good new 
ones we have been having as well. ' ' He said, ' * I have 
got to sign this big pile of letters here and get them 
into the mail, and then I will listen to what you have 
on your mind." I replied, *'I have this which came 
into my mind since I entered the room ; you can hear 
it while you write. It is this : I wonder what the peo- 
ple will pay for those letters and that signature a hun- 
dred, a thousand years from now. I venture to say 
that name scratched by your pen will bring from $100 
up a hundred years from now, and many thousands 
of dollars five hundred or a thousand years from 
now." I continued, **Your fame is secure for the 
centuries to come." I expected a witty answer, such 
as he usually gave me under such circumstances. But 
he did not give it. I looked at his face and it was 
serious. He saw I was serious and not joking, and he 
did not joke, but said, **It is lovely in you to say such 
nice things." And I said to myself while he went on 
signing his letters that he knew he belonged to hu- 
manity, to the universal heart, to the ages; that he 
felt within himself the symptoms of his earthly im- 
mortality, and that he would have a place in history 
with Washington and Lincoln. 

Washington was courtly and serious, but devoid of 
humor when compared with the other two. Lincoln 
was at the same time the saddest and the funniest 
man in the country. His native wit has never been 
surpassed in our land. Roosevelt had a humor which, 
though perhaps not so irresistible as that of Lincoln, 
was just as abounding and healthful. Either could 
have made a Mark Twain in literature if he had cared 
to, Roosevelt, with all his desperate contests, with all 
his perplexing problems, with his incessant toils, was 
of a playful spirit, had a beautiful family life, and 



WASHINGTON— LINCOLN— ROOSEVELT 27 

was possibly the happiest man in the nation. He said 
he was. 

These three national heroes, dissimilar as they 
were in earthly circumstances and intellectual char- 
acteristics, were similar in many regards; in all of 
those basic elements so necessary in the building up 
of individual character and a healthy state. The three 
were the greatest-hearted men the nation ever had. 
If their intellect was a huge mountain losing itself in 
the clouds, their affections were a deep blue, boundless 
sea. "Washington, Lincoln and Roosevelt were super- 
lative in their truth and honesty. Washington's 
hatchet will cut its way down the centuries; Honest 
Abe will for ages be a title more honorable than any 
king ever wore ; Roosevelt, ** clean as a hound's tooth," 
will be known for generations to come. 

Another element of immortality this trio had in 
common was absolute unselfishness. Neither the 
Father of his Country, nor the great Emancipator, 
nor Roosevelt ever lived a day for himself. Washing- 
ton always lived for family, fellows and country. Lin- 
coln was a martyr to his country, and so was Roose- 
velt, as much as though he had fallen on the field of 
battle. The fires of patriotism literally consumed 
him. If either of these men had been* capable of tell- 
ing a white lie, or had failed to fight the wrong at any 
cost, or had cherished a personal motive of avarice or 
inordinate ambition, he might have gotten to be Presi- 
dent, but he never would have been a national hero 
or remembered in history. 

Our three heroes were similar in their deep religious 
instincts. They were all godly men, all Christian 
men. Each of these three captains carried the ban- 
ner of the Cross. Washington set a beautiful example 
to the new republic by his religious devotion and 



28 THEODOEE ROOSEVELT 

habit. He asserted that his prayer to the God of Bat- 
tles brought help in the conflict. He was a lifelong 
member of the Episcopal Church. Lincoln was a pro- 
foundly religious man. He did not join any church, 
but he attended church services regularly and was a 
firm believer in the Bible and the Christian faith. 
Lincoln once told Bishop Simpson, whose lectures on 
the state of the country during the Civil War were 
said by the President to be worth 100,000 men to the 
Union army, and who delivered Lincoln's funeral 
address, that he felt that God had called him to lead 
the nation in its tragical time, and had given him 
wisdom, courage, strength and victory in the conflict. 

Everybody knows that Theodore Roosevelt was in- 
tensely religious; that he did not hesitate, on all 
proper occasions, to announce publicly his faith in 
the fundamental doctrines of Christianity. He was 
a devoted member of the Dutch Reformed Church and 
attended its services regularly. He told me that his 
firm faith in God, and his actual knowledge of Him 
bad been the chief motive in his individual character 
and his public service. Some think it smart and big 
to doubt. But the people of America believe. They 
want the human element in their heroes and the super- 
human elements as well. They want them earthbom 
and born from above too. It will take a nation a long 
time to die, which has as its heroes Washington, Lin- 
coln and Roosevelt, the crown of whose greatness was 
their goodness. 

The similarity of these heroes, in those moral ele- 
ments without which there can be no real manhood in 
any calling or position, was increased by the law of 
imitation. Lincoln tried his best to become like 
Washington. When a boy he came across a life of 
Washington at a neighbor's home and borrowed it. 



WASHINGTON— LINCOLN— ROOSEVELT 29 

Reading it one night, tired out, he tucked the book in 
a crack between the logs. That night a rain storm 
pelted in and spoiled it. In distress he hurried over 
to the neighbors and said, *'See what has happened, 
I have not a cent in the world, and if I, had there are 
no books for sale around here. What shall I do? 
Now take the price of it out of my hide." The man 
replied, "Abe, you pull fodder for me for three days 
and you may have it, and we will call it square." 
And he did. He fairly devoured the volume, and from 
that day his thoughts and conduct were influenced by 
those of Washington. 

Roosevelt copied Washington and Lincoln, espe- 
cially the latter. Lincoln appealed to every faculty 
of his soul. He studied his character, read his 
speeches, examined his administration, marvelled at 
his statesmanship and tried to become like him. He 
had in him, by nature, many of the qualities of Lin- 
coln, and he gained others by a lifelong admiration 
and imitation of him. He insisted that any man or 
party which had strayed away from the principles 
advocated by Lincoln was on the wrong track. 

In 1909 the centenary of the birth of Abraham Lin- 
coln was observed. On the first day of that year 
President Roosevelt addressed from the White House 
to Dr. Shaw, editor of the Review of Reviews, a char- 
acteristic letter in which he commented on the famous 
Bixby letter of the martyr President. This letter of 
President Roosevelt was as follows: 

The White House, 
Washington, Januaby 1, 1909. 
To THE Editor of the Review of Reviews : 

The deeds and words of the great men of the nation, and 
above all the character of each of the foremost men of the 
nation, are one and all assets of inestimable value to the 



30 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

Republic. Lincoln's work and Lincoln's words should be, 
and I think more and more are, part of those formative 
influences which tend to become living forces for good citi- 
zenship among our people. There is one of his letters which 
has always appealed to me particularly. It is the one run- 
ning as follows: 

Executive Mansion, 
Washington, Novembee 21, 1864. 
To Mas. BixBY, 
Boston, Mass. 
Dear Madam: I have been shown, in the files of the War 
Department, a statement of the Adjutant-General of Massa- 
chusetts, that you are the mother of five sons who have 
died gloriously on the field of battle. I feel how weak and 
fruitless must be any word of mine which should attempt 
to beguile you from the grief of a loss so overwhelming. 
But I cannot refrain from tendering you the consolation 
that may be found in the thanks of the Republic they died 
to save. I pray that our Heavenly Father may assuage the 
anguish of your bereavement, and leave you only the cher- 
ished memory of the loved and lost, and the solemn pride 
that must be yours to have laid so costly a sacrifice on the 
altar of freedom. 

Yours very sincerely and respectfully, 

A. Lincoln. 

Any man who has occupied the office of President realizes 
the incredible amount of administrative work with which 
the President has to deal even in time of peace. He is of 
necessity a very busy man, a much-driven man, from whose 
mind there can never be absent, for many minutes at a time, 
the consideration of some problem of importance, or of some 
matter of less importance which yet causes worry and 
strain. Under such circumstances, it is not easy for a Presi- 
dent, even in times of peace, to turn from the affairs that 
are of moment to all the people and consider affairs that 
are of moment to but one person. 

While this is true of times of peace, it is, of course, in- 
finitely more true of times of war. No President who has 
ever sat in the White House has borne the burden that 
Lincoln bore, or been under the ceaseless strain which he 
endured. It did not let up by day or by night. Ever he 
had to consider problems of the widest importance, ever 



WASHINGTON— LINCOLN— ROOSEVELT 31 

to run risks of greatest magnitude; and ever, tlirough and 
across his plans to meet these great dangers and responsi- 
bilities, was shot the woof of an infinite number of small 
annoyances. He worked out his great task while unceas- 
ingly beset by the need of attending as best he could to a 
multitude of small tasks. 

It is a touching thing that the great leader, while thus 
driven and absorbed, could yet so often turn aside for the 
moment to do some deed of personal kindness; and it is a 
fortunate thing for the nation that in addition to doing so 
well each deed, great or small, he possessed that marvelous 
gift of expression which enabled him, quite unconsciously, 
to choose the very words best fit to commemorate each deed. 
His Gettysburg speech and his second inaugural are two of 
the half-dozen greatest speeches ever made — I am tempted 
to call them the two greatest ever made. They are great in 
their wisdom, and dignity, and earnestness, and in a lofti- 
ness of thought and expression which makes them akin tO 
the utterances of the prophets of the Old Testament. 

In a totally different way, but in strongest and most 
human fashion, such utterances as his answer to the ser- 
enaders immediately after his second election, and his let- 
ter, which I have quoted above, appeal to us and make our 
hearts thrill. The mother of whom he wrote stood in our 
sense on a loftier plane of patriotism than the mighty 
President himself. Her memory, and the memory of her 
sons whom she bore for the Union, should be kept green in 
our minds ; for she and they, in life and death, typified all 
that is best and highest in our national existence. The 
deed itself, and the words of the great man which com- 
memorate that deed, should form one of those heritages for 
all Americans which it is of inestimable consequence that 
America should possess. 

Theodore Roosevelt. 

In this letter Mr. Eoosevelt thinks Lincoln's Ad- 
dress at Gettysburg and his Second Inaugural Ad- 
dress are the greatest ones ever delivered. He him- 
self has some addresses, whose periods are in the class 
of Lincoln's masterpieces. One of these is this de- 
scription of Lincoln: 



32 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

"After long years of iron effort, and of failure thait came 
more often than victory, he at last rose to the leadership of 
the Republic, at the moment when that leadership had be- 
come the stupendous world-task of the time. He grew to 
know greatness, but never ease. Success came to him, but 
never happiness, save that which springs from doing well 
a painful and vital task. Power was his, but not pleasure. 
The furrows deepened on his brow, but his eyes were un- 
dimmed by either hate or fear. His gaunt shoulders were 
bowed, but his steel thews never faltered as he bore for a 
burden the destinies of his people. His great and tender 
heart shrank from giving pain ; and the task allotted him 
was to pour out like water the life-blood of the young men, 
and to feel in his every fiber the sorrow of the women. Dis- 
aster saddened but never dismayed him. As the red years 
of war went by they found him ever doing his duty in the 
present, ever facing the future with fearless front, high of 
heart, and dauntless of soul. Unbroken by hatred, unshaken 
by scorn, he worked and suffered for the people. Triumph 
was his at the last ; and barely had he tasted it before mur- 
der found him, and the kindly, patient, fearless eyes were 
closed forever." 

Roosevelt's comparison of Washington and Lincoln 
will make a fitting close for this chapter. It is this: 

"As a people we are indeed beyond measure fortunate in 
the characters of the two greatest of our public men, Wash- 
ington and Lincoln. Widely though they differed in ex- 
ternals, the Virginia-landed gentleman and the Kentucky 
backwoodsman, they were alike in essentials, they 
were alike in the great qualities which made each able 
to render service to his nation, and to all mankind, 
such as no other man of his generation could or 
did render. Each had lofty ideals, but each in striving 
to attain these lofty ideals was guided by the soundest com- 
mon sense. Each possessed inflexible courage in adversity, 
and a soul wholly unspoiled by prosperity. Each possessed 
all the gentler virtues commonly exhibited by good men 
who lack rugged strength of character. Each possessed, also, 
all the strong qualities commonly exhibited by those tow- 
ering masters of mankind who have, too often, shown them- 
selves devoid of so much as the understanding of the words 



WASHINGTON— LINCOLN— ROOSEVELT 33 

by which we signify the qualities of duty, of mercy, of de- 
votion to the right, of lofty disinterestedness in battling 
for the good of others. There have been other men as great 
and other men as good; but in all the history of mankind 
there are no other two great men as good as these, no other 
two good men as great. Widely though the problems of to- 
day differ from the problems set for solution to Washington 
when he founded this nation, to Lincoln when he saved it 
and freed the slave, yet the qualities they showed in meet- 
ing these problems are exactly the same as those we should 
show in doing our work to-day." 

This thing he did, exhibited the same qualities that 
Washington and Lincoln did in the settlement of the 
problems of his time and with them makes up the trio 
of immortal American heroes. 



HIS BIRTHPLACE AND BOYHOOD 



CHAPTER II 
HIS BIRTHPLACE AND BOYHOOD 

AS the birthplace of Theodore Roosevelt is only 
ten minutes' walk from where I am writing, I 
thought I would go over and see what it looked 
like and describe it outside and in, as a proper setting 
for this chapter on his birth and childhood. To my 
deep regret I found that the old house had been torn 
down and a little two-story brick business building 
had been put up in its place. I entered the store and 
asked the man if that was the site on which Roosevelt 
was born. He said, "Yes," and that the old house 
had been taken away about a year before. I asked 
him if any part of the old building had been left in 
the new. He said, *'No." I continued, "Is there 
not, about the place, a window out of which Theodore 
looked, or a piece of flooring over which he romped, 
or a banister down which he slid?" He answered, 
"Not one!" "I am sorry," I said, "for there are 
thousands of people who would cross a continent or 
come the length of an ocean to look at the place where 
Theodore Roosevelt was born, and pay their homage 
at this shrine." 

"Well, just here in this sweatshop district, which 
sixty years ago was a rich, fashionable, residential 
neighborhood, here at No. 28 East 20th Street, just off 
Broadway, New York Citv, Theodore Roosevelt was 

37 



38 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

born October 27, 1858. At his advent no bells were 
rung, no whistles blown, no newspaper mentioned the 
fact, no president or king sent congratulations. It 
is not likely that many persons living on the same 
block, even, ever heard that such a child had been 
born, so silent and small are the beginnings of great- 
ness, are the beginnings of life itself. I suspect that 
if any one had been there, that beautiful October day, 
with spirit ears keen enough, he would have heard the 
angels, with their harps, serenading the child that 
heaven had sent to earth. So on this little piece of 
ground, a few feet front and a few feet deep, was born 
the babe that grew to be the giant who set all the 
bells to ringing, the whistles to blowing, the bands to 
playing, the children to laughing, the multitude to 
shouting, the battle-drums to beating, and the millions 
to practical service for their fellowmen and for the 
public good. The old birthplace, four stories high, 
was the foundation and first story of the magnificent 
structure of the Roosevelt character and life. 

This old building housed Roosevelt's home. The 
material structure has gone, but the home was a spiri- 
tual force that can never be destroyed. Everything 
that lives has a home, a place where it may abide, de- 
velop its growth, and prepare for its mission on the 
earth. This home on 20th Street was an ideal home 
before Theodore was born into it. 

Roosevelt was born to greatness. He inherited 
qualities that carried him to his heights of service and 
fame. It is a law of nature that life stamps its image 
on its offspring. It is so with the grains, the herds, 
the flocks and the tribes of men. Theodore Roosevelt 
had a right to be great. He came of splendid stock on 
both sides. For two hundred years the name of Roose- 
velt has been prominent and popular in many forms 



HIS BIRTHPLACE AND BOYHOOD 39 

of material, intellectual, moral and political endeavors 
in New York City. The first of the name, Claas Mar- 
tenzen van Roosevelt, came from Holland to New 
Amsterdam in 1649. Theodore's great great grand- 
father was a private soldier in the Revolutionary- 
War. 

His great grandfather was a prosperous hard- 
ware merchant, and in the War of Independence gave 
his services to the colonists without compensation. His 
grandfather was a man of uncommon genius, one of 
the great inventors of the world. During the Revo- 
lutionary War, he ran a paddle boat propelled by 
hickory and whalebone springs. At the close of the 
war he settled in New York, interesting himself in 
copper mines, rolling-mills and the like. He became 
associated with Robert Fulton in the plan to drive a 
boat with steam paddles. It was disputed then, and 
has been since, whether Fulton or Roosevelt was the 
discoverer of the steamboat. Fulton got the patent. 
Roosevelt contested it, but gave up the contest be- 
cause it was so expensive. He united with Fulton in 
a plan to navigate the Western waters with the steam- 
boat, and he himself built and took from Pittsburg 
to New Orleans, the first steamer whose paddles ever 
disturbed the great waters of the Ohio and Mississippi. 

Theodore's father, whose name was Theodore, was a 
remarkable man, a wealthy glass merchant on Maiden 
Lane, prominent and influential in city and national 
politics, and a founder of some of the most important 
educational and benevolent institutions in the city. 
He was especially devoted to any enterprises relating 
to the children of the poor ; was a prominent member 
of the Dutch Reformed Church, and was respected 
and loved universally. At his* death, the flags in 
New York City were dropped to half-mast in sorrow. 



40 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

Theodore's stock on his mother's side was just as 
good. His great great grandfather, Archibald Bul- 
lock, was a member of the Continental Congress and 
the first State Governor of Georgia. His mother's 
brother, James D. Bullock, was a prominent officer in 
the Confederate navy, who arranged for the purchase 
of the privateers Florida and Alabama. His mother, 
Miss Martha Bullock, was married to Theodore Roose- 
velt, Sr., at her father's home at Roswell, Cobb Coun- 
ty, Ga., in 1853. The stern, rugged, masterful ele- 
ments of the Holland-Dutch, Theodore Roosevelt got 
from his father. The beautiful, tender, loving nature, 
which drew a whole nation to him, he got from his 
mother, a lovely Southern woman. His father was a 
hunter, was passionately fond of a horse, and was a 
good driver and rider. The elder Roosevelt was an 
ideal family man and a devoted worker in the 
church. 

The young Theodore inherited those traits which de- 
veloped into the elements of his future greatness. His 
mother was a polite, magnetic, affectionate, loving 
woman with the warmth of hospitality and the simple, 
sincere piety of the sunny South. She had much 
native humor. The boy inherited from her those less 
vigorous virtues that made his life so beautiful, the 
gentleness that had so much to do in making him 
great. One of the most eloquent specimens of Ameri- 
can literature was the reference of Henry W. Grady, 
the exponent of the new South at the New England 
dinner, as he proclaimed that Lincoln's greatness was 
the natural mixture of the Puritan and Cavalier. 
Similarly Theodore Roosevelt's greatness exhibited 
the moral and religious influence of the Holland- 
Dutch, and the chivalry of the beautiful Southland. 

Just as soon as the boy Theodore had learned to 




© Underwood & UnderwOijd, N. Y. 
AS GOVERNOR OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK. 



HIS BIRTHPLACE AND BOYHOOD 41 

walk and talk, both parents set themselves to the task 
of teaching him the strictest morality; the necessity 
of constant truth-telling ; the sin of taking that which 
belongs to another ; the meanness of wanting the best 
of everything for himself ; the beauty of giving some- 
thing he had to others and making others happy ; the 
necessity of personal purity and the duty to love God. 
The man four square, the man demanding a square 
deal of every one, and for every one, was only living 
out the sterling moral principles his father and 
mother had taught him when a boy. 

There was no man in public life who seemed more 
a product of our popular school system than Mr. 
Roosevelt. Yet he never attended the public schools 
a day in his life. It would be thought that his per- 
fectly democratic spirit could have been produced 
only by our common school system. Born and bred 
an aristocrat, his father was democratic in spirit, and 
he himself, by his life in the West and on the ranch 
and in the field of politics, became an ideal democrat, 
in spite of the fact that he missed a common school 
education. He, however, sent all of his own children 
to the public schools, was one of the most earnest and 
efficient friends of the popular school system, and was 
the idol of the teachers and school children of the 
land. 

Though Theodore did not go to the public schools, 
he did not lack a preliminary education by any means. 
It must be remembered that he was the son of a rich 
man, and that rich people in those days had their own 
way of educating their children. The mother was a 
Southern woman who believed much in the personal 
influence of motherhood and home in the training of 
their boy, and she started in to teach him herself, to 
read and write and spell and figure. And her sister 



42 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

living in the family also acted as a teacher. And, 
when he advanced somewhat in his studies, they got 
a tutor for him, and he was taught at home till he 
went to college, with the exception of a few months 
when he attended a private school. 

The parents had a university in the home. It was 
the library. Books, books, books, the boy was fed on 
them. He was brought up on them. Before he could 
read, his mother and others in the family read to 
him. They read tales of adventure, things about ani- 
mals, stories of hunting big game, of Indian life, 
things about smart and good boys and girls. When he 
wore Mlt skirts and a single curl on the top of his 
head, Theodore used to drag about a book too big for 
him to handle, asking some one to read to him from 
it. It was Livingstone's "Travels and Researches in 
South Africa. ' ' And the child was all waked up with 
interest in explorations and experiences of this great 
man. Who knows how much of the plan for the 
African trip of Roosevelt the great explorer and 
hunter may have been laid in the mind of that boy 
at home by the story of the mountains, the rivers, the 
people, and the wild beasts of Africa, and of the hero 
who devoted his life to the task of blessing and re- 
deeming its millions? 

The mother entertained her child with stories of the 
Southland, of hunting opossums and coons and wild 
turkey and foxes ; and read stories of big game hunt- 
ing to him of deer and bear. She was unwittingly- 
raising a man for the chase. 

When the boy got old enough to read for himself, 
they fairly surrounded him with books. It was no 
accident that books on nature study were placed in 
his hands. It was done on purpose, not only to enter- 
tain him, but to make a naturalist of him. So when 



HIS BIRTHPLACE AND BOYHOOD 43 

the boy went out even to play in the country he took 
notice of the flowers, the ants, and bugs and lizards, 
and fishes and birds; he knew something about them 
and wanted to find out more, and as he grew in years 
he made them his study, his companions and his joy. 

They placed in his hands also magazines, which 
were bright, spicy and morally healthful. His parents 
were much wiser than they knew, when they im- 
planted in his childish heart this appetite for reading 
and satisfied it so well. He kept up the habit of in- 
cessant reading of books at Harvard and throughout 
his life, and became one of the most omnivorous 
readers and most well informed of public men. 

It was a fortunate thing for the making of this 
great man that Theodore's parents were so full of the 
playful spirit themselves and saw the absolute neces- 
sity for amusement and exercise for their children. 
They were allowed to run and jump and howl at the 
top of their voices; they were taught games indoors 
and out-of-doors. Though their home was in the city, 
they spent at least four months of the year at some 
country seat on purpose to give the children oppor- 
tunity for recreation and for the development of their 
physical strength. What glorious times the children 
had roaming through the woods, picking flowers, 
catching fish out of the streams, rowing boats, watch- 
ing the birds and having companionship with every- 
thing that God has made ! They kicked up their heels 
at every kind of outdoor sport that could be imagined, 
had piles of fun and grew and were supremely happy. 
They had every conceivable kind of pet — cat, dogs, 
horses, and others. Theodore had a sorrel Shetland 
pony called General Grant ; and when his sister read 
about General Grant in her history of the Civil War, 



44 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

she wondered why it was that they happened to call 
this general after their pony. 

Theodore the boy did not have very many play- 
mates outside of his own home and circle of relatives. 
His parents were very careful of the company he 
kept, but they were quite democratic and allowed him 
to select his own chums according to his taste. They 
seemed as well satisfied if he selected a chum in or- 
dinary circumstances, or a poor boy, as though he had 
chosen a son of wealth as his companion. 

For ten years I have been well acquainted with 
one of Theodore Roosevelt's boy chums, John W. 
McNichols, of Dobbs Ferry, New York, a sturdy, hon- 
est village blacksmith. We were brought together by 
our mutual friendships for our national hero. He 
had told me so many things about having played as a 
boy with young Theodore, that I asked him to tell me 
a few things which I could put in my book about 
him. He said, ''I will count it a pleasure and an 
honor to do so." Then he went on to say: ''Theo- 
dore's father went into the fine Paton Place on the 
hill at Dobbs Ferry during the summer of 1872. I 
was thirteen and he a year older. The way I hap- 
pened to get acquainted with him was, that his father 
had twenty-two horses (you know he drove four-in- 
hand) and my uncle, a blacksmith, shod his horses 
for him. The coachman usually brought the horses 
down and took them back, but there were three ponies 
in the stable. One belonged to the boy, Theodore, and 
the other two to his sisters. Theodore would go down 
to the shop to get one of the ponies and I would ride 
the other back with him. 

"One day I was sent up to get one of the ponies and 
I saw the boy Teddy alone on the pond in a nice little 
white skiff. I went down to the shore and he rowed 



HIS BIRTHPLACE AND BOYHOOD 45 

to where I was and asked me if I would not get in 
and take a ride with him. That is how we got ac- 
quainted at first. And after that I did not have to 
ask to get into the skiff, but he told me to get into it 
and take a row any time, whether he was there or not. 
We had such fine times rowing that skiff. I often 
rowed him and he would sit in the stem with his 
back to me and drag his feet in the water as a rudder. 
We used to get very warm those summer days and 
very thii'sty. At such times we would pull the boat 
out of the pond into a little stream up to a spring 
which was the source of the pond, and there drank 
to our fill of the cool water. I got a cocoanut sheU, 
sawed it in two halves and made two drinking-cups 
of it; one I marked 'T. R.' for him and the other 
'J. N.' for me. (My name is McNichols, but they 
always called me Nichols in those days, and hence I 
marked it 'J. N.'). We had a little place where we 
kept those cups, and whenever we rowed, and that was 
nearly every day, we went to the spring and drank 
out of our cups. Oh, but that water tasted mighty 
good ! It tastes good now as I think of it. 

' * We were both good swimmers for boys. We swam 
in the pond, and when he came down to the shop and 
the horses were not ready, he and I used to slip off 
down to the beach behind the old livery stable and 
swim in the Hudson. 

"He was out one day in his little skiff paddling 
and playing around and I was at the shore watching 
him. He saw two wealthy neighbors driving along 
the road not far from the pond, and just as they came 
opposite to it he pretended to make a misstep and 
turned the boat upside down. He did not come up, 
and the rich neighbors ran frantically to the edge of 
the pond and were making strenuous efforts to rescue 



46 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

his dead body. Just then he came out from under 
the upturned skiff and laughed at them, and they 
laughed harder at each other and went back to their 
carriage. He was full of all kinds of funny boyish 
pranks. 

"Theodore always went down with his father in 
their depot wagon, as they called it in those days, to 
the 8.15 train for New York. On the way back from 
the train he had the coachman drive around to the 
shop to get me to go out to the place and get the 
pony to shoe. I had already started to school and my 
uncle told him if he would hurry he could catch me 
before I got to school and could take me out with 
him. Sure enough he got me just before entering the 
school, and I went out with him. As we were driv- 
ing up to go around to the stable, Mr. Teddy told 
the coachman to stop right there, and he took the 
livery of the coachman and put it on himself, the 
coat all buttoned up, and the hat in its place. I 
started to get off the box and he said, 'No, you stay, 
I want you as my footman.' I said to him, 'Ted, I 
got this old hickory shirt on and this little straw hat 
and your mother will get on to us.' He said, 'Do 
what I tell you to do. You are my footman to-day.' 

"He drove around to the front of the house and 
saw a girl on the porch sweeping, and he called out 
in a loud voice, 'Is Mrs. Roosevelt in?' The girl 
said, 'Yes.' He continued, 'Go ask her to come out 
and take a ride; I am ready. Tell her if she does 
not come out now she cannot have any ride at all 
to-day.' The girl turned to carry the word to Mrs. 
Roosevelt, when she put her head out of an upstairs 
window, called to the girl and said, 'Who is that per- 
son that is calling for me ? ' She answered, ' I am not 
just sure, but I think it is Mr. Theodore. ' I heard her 



HIS BIRTHPLACE AND BOYHOOD 47 

say as we were driving off to the barn, 'Well, who- 
ever it is, that is about the finest-looking rig that 
has come to this house this summer. ' 

' * Teddy had a nice little gun and we took turns in 
practice shooting. We used to play ball there and 
catch it and knock it with a bat, though there were 
not enough boys in that neighborhood to make a 
game of baseball. 

* ' When he was Governor of the State he rode with 
his staff from New York through Dobbs Ferry to the 
camp at Peekskill. I knew he was coming by and 
hung out a big flag at my blacksmith shop and stood 
out in front of it to hail him as he went by. He rode 
up to where I was, took me by the hand and said, 
'John, I remember you well. We had good old times 
the summer we were boys together. ' 

"When he was elected President the second term I 
concluded I would write him a letter of congratula- 
tion. I went to the bank and got a sheet of paper 
with the bank heading on it and wrote him a letter 
reminding him of the good times we had had as boys 
together, never thinking that any notice would be 
paid to it ; but within three days I got a letter from 
his secretary, Mr. William Loeb, Jr., saying that the 
President received my letter and would answer it per- 
sonally. In just a few days I received a letter re- 
ferring to that glorious summer we had together and 
he also sent me a large photograph of himself to John 
W. McNichols from Theodore Eoosevelt, in his own 
handwriting. How proud I was of it and how proud 
I was to show it to my friends, some of whom thought 
I was half inclined to stretch things a little when I 
talked of having the boy, Theodore Roosevelt, as my 
chum. 

**I took a piece of the finest steel I could find and 



48 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

hammered on my own anvil a horseshoe for good 
luck. It was about the size of a shoe that an ordinary 
saddle horse would wear. I plated it four times with 
gold and I put an inscription on it including his 
name and mine, and the date, and sent it to him as 
a reminder of those grand four months of fun be- 
tween May and October, 1872. I received a letter 
from him, thanking me from the bottom of his heart 
and saying that he would keep it as one of his own 
precious treasures as long as he lived. ' ' 

Poor Theodore had a serious handicap in the asthma 
which attacked him very early and remained with 
him through his college days and for some years 
after. He drove it out by his vigorous ranch life. 
The singular solicitude which an invalid always 
awakens was felt by Theodore's father and mother. 
His father often carried him upstairs in his arms, and 
when the little fellow would wheeze in his sleep it 
easily awoke father and mother, who hurried to his 
bed to help him if possible in his paroxysms of pain 
and choking. And sometimes they would find him sit- 
ting up in the bed with his elbows on his knees try- 
ing to get his breath. Many a time between two and 
four o'clock in the morning, when his spells were the 
worst, his father would hitch up and drive the boy 
over the country roads to give him fresh air and 
some relief. 

This persistent asthma and the nervousness which 
was the result, or possibly the cause of it, made him 
quite weak for his age. When he came in contact 
with the few playmates he had, he found that those 
of the same size and age could thrash him easily. 
This mortified him very much. He resolved that he 
would build up a strong body by exercise, not only 
that he might be healthy and grow up to be a useful 



HIS BIRTHPLACE AND BOYHOOD 49 

man, but also that he might be able to protect him- 
self, physically, against any kind of ill-treatment or 
injustice. He talked the matter over with his father 
and his father consented to have a man give him box- 
ing lessons. It so chanced that that teacher was a 
professional pugilist. The boy liked the sport amaz- 
ingly and grew strong on it, practised it at Harvard 
and through the rest of his life, and was one of the 
most enthusiastic champions of that kind of sport in 
the United States. This boxing in boyhood, while it 
developed his strength and mitigated his attacks of 
asthma, did not entirely eradicate it. The deep deter- 
mination with which this slim, sick, weak boy devel- 
oped himself into one of the finest athletes and strong- 
est men in the nation, was the same force of will 
which enabled him to triumph over ten thousand hin- 
drances which were piled up in his pathway to his 
journey's end. 

How touching was the affection of the father for 
Theodore and how perfectly that affection was recip- 
rocated by him. The Greatest of All, in teaching men 
to pray, said, ''Say Our Father," because he thought 
that the word father came nearer to that of God than 
any other one. In the physical support, in the edu- 
cation furnished, in the amusement supplied, in the 
genuine delights furnished, in the great moral prin- 
ciples inculcated, and in the personal affection lav- 
ished, he was to the boy's mind a type of the Heavenly 
Father. For he said of him, **He was the best man 
I ever knew." 

The affection of the mother for Theodore was pa- 
thetic. Her boy, her bright boy, her sick boy, her 
good boy, was ever so much dearer to her than her 
own life ; and Theodore fairly worshipped her. When 
only nine or ten years of age, he kept a diary. On 



50 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

one of the pages he wrote that he had had a cholera 
morbus the night before and a nightmare, that the 
devil had taken him up and carried him away, but he 
continued that he felt the delicate touch of his 
mother's fingers and that made him better. 

The father and mother of Theodore were very care- 
fid in his religious instruction. They taught him that 
the Bible was the book of books ; that talking to God 
was as real as talking to people, and that to be a 
consistent Christian was to be the greatest thing in 
life, and to include about every other thing. Family 
prayers led by the father were just as regular as the 
breakfast on the table, and the children were taught 
at a very early age that there was a real relation be- 
tween them and the God of heaven. The mother 
taught Theodore at her knee the little prayer, "Now 
I lay me down to sleep," and other prayers as well. 
Sometimes the children were allowed a little latitude 
of extemporaneous prayer. On one occasion Theodore 
availed himself of this liberty to a large degree. 

His mother had disciplined him in some way for 
some misconduct, and Theodore thought unjustly. 
And so when he came to his prayer before going to 
bed he broke out in a request that God would bless 
the Union army and give it success. He gave his 
mother this piece of his mind under the pretense of 
prayer, because he knew that she was a pronounced 
Confederate, and he took this means of getting even 
with her. She was so full of humor that she turned 
her face away so that he might not see her laugh. 
Bringing her face around to him seriously, she told 
him that she would let him off this time if he would 
agree not to do so again. Powerful as was the 
father's religious influence over Theodore, that of his 
mother was just as great. If father was the name 



HIS BIRTHPLACE AND BOYHOOD 51 

most like God to Roosevelt, mother was a name next 
to that of Heaven to him. With his splendid lineage, 
with his mental ability, with all the books, and amuse- 
ments, and earthly affections, it was the religion of the 
old home that made the Theodore Roosevelt the nation 
knew. 

Theodore's first handicap was the asthma; the sec- 
ond handicap was the fact that he was born in a rich 
man's home. He is the first very rich man's son who 
ever became President. All virtue does not inhere 
in those that are poor or in moderate circumstances, 
nor is all vice to be found in wealth, but the fact is 
that out of poverty and moderate financial circum- 
stances, in this free land of great opportunity, have 
come most of our successful men. There is a feeling 
of self-dependence, and industry, so necessary to suc- 
cess which is demanded by it. "Wealth so easily 
breeds in the youth indolence, luxury, excessive pur- 
suit of pleasure, dissipation, effeminacy and failure. 
This is not always the case, for some of the sons of 
the rich overcome their handicaps and succeed in busi- 
ness or in some learned profession and they deserve 
especial credit for their habits of study, industry, hon- 
esty and virtue. Nearly all of the great fortunes of 
America have been founded by poor boys who had 
to work their way up. The two greatest by Rocke- 
feller, who hoed potatoes in the field at fifty cents a 
day; and by Carnegie, the poor little Scotch messen- 
ger boy who worked to support his widowed mother. 

Some of the boys in comfortable circumstances 
reached the Presidency, but a number of very poor 
ones worked their way up to it. Lincoln was ajjjectly 
poor, was hard up for money till after he got into 
the "White House. A gentleman at the World's Fair 
in Chicago, who was closely related to Lincoln, told 



52 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

me that one day when he had made out the slip for 
the day's deposit in the bank, which represented a 
considerable amount of money, being the day he re- 
ceived his salary, the President said to him, "This is 
the first time in my life that I have ever been ahead 
of the hounds in money matters. ' ' Johnson, his Vice- 
president, was an apprentice to a tailor down in Ten- 
nessee. Garfield drove a mule on the towpaths of a 
canal ; McKinley was a clerk in the post office ; Cleve- 
land and Wilson were the poor sons of Presbyterian 
preachers. We do not forget that Washington at the 
time of his inaugural was said to be the richest man 
in the United States, but he was a child of moderate 
financial circumstance, and, as a boy, had to work for 
his living; that he inherited Mt, Vernon from a 
relative, and that the wealth he had when President 
was that which came to him by the widow Custis, the 
rich woman whom he married. The historical fact re- 
mains that this boy from 20th Street was the only son 
of a very rich man that ever became President of the 
United States. 

The home of wealth, ordinarily the handicap of 
greatness, was in the case of Theodore Roosevelt, one 
of its important helps. His father made wealth his 
servant and not his master. His father and mother 
did not consider wealth the main thing in life. They 
took great pains to teach their boy by precept and ex- 
ample that wealth was of value only as it contributed 
to physical well-being, mental development and moral 
and religious growth. They taught their children that 
truth, honor and virtue were the real riches in life. 

It is more than likely that Theodore Roosevelt owed 
his elevation to the presidency to the fact that his 
father was rich, and that he laid away .a portion of 
his wealth so that his son might devote his time en- 



HIS BIRTHPLACE AND BOYHOOD 53 

tirely to the public good without any care on his 
part about temporal support. In fact, Colonel 
Roosevelt, time and again to those of us closest to 
him, claimed that much of his success in life grew out 
of the fact that his father made it possible for him 
to give his life up to the service of the state without 
having first to go through the burden of making a 
living for his family. In these times, so many men of 
wealth swallow their breakfast and hurry away to 
business. They burden themselves down with it aU 
day, and return home at night after the children have 
gone to bed, or maybe after a meeting at the club. 
They really need to be introduced to their families. 
Theodore Roosevelt's father never thought of going 
down to business till he had gathered about him his 
wife and children at family prayers. He spent all 
the time possible at home and counted his home as 
the principal thing. Though he did not neglect his 
business, he considered the dear children that God 
had given him more precious than any earthly for- 
tune. 

The brightest hope of the republic is in the fact that 
the principles that weje incarnated in the old home of 
Theodore Roosevelt are those that characterize the 
average home among the rich and poor in this coun- 
try to-day — the principles of conjugal fidelity, filial 
obedience, integrity, industry, education and religion. 

Theodore never went to school except a few months 
when he attended a special school near his home. 
While at this school an incident occurred which was 
thus told to one of the editors of The Christian 
Herald: 

Some fifty years ago, one very cold morning, a half-dozen 
or more boys were gathered closely around an old stove 
in the MacMillan School in New York City. One of those 



54 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

boys had poor health and especially weak eyes. An old 
gentleman always brought this boy to school. It was 
noticeable that the boy was always present and never 
failed to know his lessons. 

While shivering around the old stove that morning, an- 
other boy, Fred McDaniel, a tall, awkward and unpurpose- 
ful-looking boy, came down the aisle, threw his skates on 
the floor and his books upon his desk, walked over to the 
old stove and said : "Ted, you're a fool !" Ted looked up 
quickly and said impulsively : "What do you mean?" "Oh, 
I don't mean what you think I mean," said Fred. "I mean 
that you're not able to come to school. Your eyes are weak, 
and you'll put them out and be blind. Your father is rich 
and you don't have to go to school. My father is rich and 
I expect to make the teacher expel me. I was expelled 
from school in Albany, and they'll do It here. I'm simply 
not going to school." By this time Ted had risen to his feet. 

"I may put my eyes out," he said. "I am going to be 
educated — I am going to be educated !" 

Within three weeks, Fred succeeded in carrying out hla 
determination, getting himself expelled from school. An- 
other boy, Devolt, was present that morning. Devolt says : 
"Many years later I went to Albany, where Fred and I 
were born, to visit my parents. As I entered the depot, the 
wind was piercing, the snow was falling fast. I was at- 
tracted by the sight of a large man wearing coarse and 
untidy clothes. His face was haggard, his hair was streaked 
with gray, across his shoulder was a large strap that held 
a heavy bundle of daily papers. "Have a paper, sir?" I 
recognized the voice, and as I turned he said to me : "De- 
volt, is that you?" "Yes, Fred, old fellow, I'm so glad to 
see you." 

After talking a few moments, the two old schoolmates 
stepped into a nearby cafe to have supper. Having ordered 
their supper, Devolt said : "Fred, do you remember " 

"Wait, Devolt, I know what you're going to say. You are 
going to tell me about the morning I told Ted he was a fool. 
Y'^es, Devolt, I remember it all, and it's the saddest memory 
of my life. For now he's our President, and I — I will sleep 
in a garret to-night." 

When Theodore was sixteen years of age, his father 
moved into the more fashionable district from the old 



HIS BIRTHPLACE AND BOYHOOD 55 

house on 20th Street to 6 West 57th Street. Theodore 
was now feeling his wings as it were, and was getting 
ready to fly out of the nest. One of the first things 
he did was to take a bold public stand, joining the 
Christian church as a member of the St. Nicholas 
Reformed Church. This selection of the path of vir- 
tue and piety on the threshold of life has its parallel 
in the Choice of Heracles recorded by Xenophon in 
his "Memorabilia of Socrates." One of the most 
brilliant and powerful of the young men of Greece 
was hesitating as to what path into life he should en- 
ter. While doing so, he repaired to a solitude for 
meditation. While there, two maidens approached 
him. 

One of them possessed physical charms, but was 
aided by art so that she seemed fairer and rosier than 
she really was; she was elegantly clad, and greatly 
admired herself. She told the young man that if he 
would follow her path she would lead him to happi- 
ness, furnish him food and drink, and pleasure, and 
luxury, and that she would never require him to toil a 
day either with body or mind. The young man asked 
her what was her name. She replied, ^ ' Those who love 
me call me Happiness, those who hate me call me 
Vice." 

The other maiden, whose name was Virtue, ap- 
proached the young man and made her plea. Soc- 
rates thus describes her and tells what she said to 
him : ' ' She was fair to look upon, frank and free by 
gift of nature. Her limbs adorned with purity and 
her eyes with bashfulness, sobriety set the rhythm 
of her gait, and she was clad in white apparel." And 
she said, "Heracles, I, too, am come to you, seeing 
that your parents are well known to me, and in your 
nurture I have gauged your nature; wherefore I en- 



56 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

tertain good hope that if you choose the path which 
leads to me, you shall greatly bestir yourself to be 
the doer of many a doughty deed of noble enterprise ; 
and that I, too, shall be held in even higher honor 
for your sake, lit with the luster shed by valorous 
deeds. I will not cheat you with preludings of pleas- 
ure, but I will relate you the things that are accord- 
ing to the ordinances of God in very truth. Know 
then that among things that are lovely and of good 
report, not one have the gods bestowed upon mortal 
man apart from toil and pains. Would you obtain the 
favor of the gods, then must you pay these same gods 
service. Would you be loved by your friends, you 
must benefit these friends. Do you desire to be hon- 
ored by the state, you must give the state your aid. 
Do you claim admiration for your virtue from all Hel- 
las, you must strive to do some good to Hellas. Do you 
wish earth to yield her fruits to you abundantly, to 
earth you must pay your court; Do you seek to amass 
riches from our flocks and herds, on them must you 
bestow your labor. Or is it your ambition to be potent 
as a warrior, able to save your friends and to subdue 
your foes, then must you learn the arts of war from 
those who have the knowledge, and practise their ap- 
plication in the field when learned. Or would you 
e'en be powerful of limb and body, then must you 
habituate limbs and body to obey the mind, and exer- 
cise yourself with toil and work. ' ' The maiden Virtue 
seems a veritable prophetess foretelling the destiny of 
the hero, Theodore Roosevelt. 

In entering life he came to two roads, a broad one 
leading to destruction and a narrow one leading to 
heaven. He deliberately took God as his guide and 
Christ as his example, and at the age of sixteen en- 
tered the Army of the King and battled for the cause 
of righteousness till the day of- his death. 



AT HARVARD 



CHAPTER III 
AT HARVARD 

THE family at home had done its part faithfully 
in the preliminary education of Theodore, and 
the time had come for a new factor to enter into 
his mental and moral life, that of a tutor to prepare 
him for college. A brilliant young Harvard graduate, 
Mr. Arthur H. Cutler, who had tried the woolen busi- 
ness in New York and had tired of it, concluded he 
would undertake the task of preparing boys and 
young men for college. He always said that fortune 
came his way when he was asked just then to tutor 
the Roosevelt boys. Theodore's father had just moved 
uptown to No. 6 West 57th Street, and young Cutler 
came up to that home from 9 to 12 every school day 
for three years to fit the Roosevelt boys for college. 
There were three of them — Theodore and his brother, 
Elliott, and his cousin, J. West Roosevelt. After three 
years of this special work of tuition, Mr. Cutler con- 
cluded that he would make the Roosevelt boys and the 
few others he had been able to handle himself the 
basis of a boys' preparatory school. Theodore Roose- 
velt was claimed as the first graduate, and the late 
Elliott Roosevelt and J. West Roosevelt graduated in 
1877. 

59 



60 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

It would have been thought that Theodore's father, 
having been so strict a member of the Dutch Re- 
formed Church, would have sent his son to Rut- 
gers or to Princeton, but young Cutler's recommenda- 
tion of Harvard and his splendid educational equip- 
ment influenced the father to send the boy to Harvard 
in the autumn of 1876. Theodore's respect for his tu- 
tor the first year was great ; it increased the next year 
and the next, and the two were lifelong friends. Col- 
onel Roosevelt never ceased to recognize the tremen- 
dous influence of this young teacher on his education, 
character and destiny. Dr. Cutler's school, which he 
founded on the Roosevelt boys, became one of the fin- 
est institutions of its kind in America, and numbered 
among its graduates the sons of some of the most in- 
fluential families in New York City and elsewhere, 
among them: "William Havemeyer, J. Pierpont Mor- 
gan, Prof. T. C. Janeway, the late doctor ; John Har- 
sen Rhoades, Harry Payne Whitney, Hon. Frank L. 
Polk, John D. Rockefeller, Jr., and many others. For 
forty years Professor Cutler through his school hon- 
ored his profession and blessed the young manhood of 
America as few have done. 

One of the masters, Prof. Herbert S. Boyd, told me 
this incident, illustrating not only the intimacy of 
Dr. Cutler with Colonel Roosevelt, but also Mr. Roose- 
velt's wide knowledge of books. Professor Boyd said : 
' ' Dr. Cutler was always a most welcome guest at Saga- 
more Hill and at the White House. In his visits to 
the White House the old times were talked over and 
also matters of public interest. But the President al- 
ways called up the question of the new books that had 
been written and their merits were discussed. Almost 
the first questions which the President would put to 
his old tutor was, * What have you been reading ? * And 



AT HARVARD 61 

Dr. Cutler would tell him the books which he had 
read, and it seemed that Mr. Roosevelt had already 
read \hem. Dr. Cutler decided to get ahead of him, 
so he went to a book store and asked for the latest 
publication (a book in two volumes) . Dr. Cutler took 
the first volume with him on the train to Washington 
and had the other sent to his own home in the city. 
Try as he might it was of such heavy reading that be- 
tween New York and Washington he could complete 
only about 200 pages. When Roosevelt asked him 
what he had been reading, he told him and expected 
to have the advantage of Mr. Roosevelt. Mr. Roose- 
velt asked him how he liked the book and Dr. Cutler 
attempted to discuss what *he had read, but the Presi- 
dent said, 'You know nothing about the book. Wait 
till you get to page 455 of volume two ; that is where 
the work shines. ' ' ' 

Theodore Roosevelt, fully prepared by Professor 
Cutler, entered Harvard in 1876, a slim young man 
of eighteen, not weighing over one hundred and thirty 
pounds and wearing a pair of side whiskers. He had 
not entirely recovered from his old enemy the asthma, 
and wheezed and suffered with it considerably through 
his college course, but he continued his physical exer- 
cise, walking, horse-back riding, boxing and other gym- 
nastic exercises and retained his strength and gained 
muscle and general health despite his strenuous course. 
He was not counted a great student, did not stand 
very high in his class and did not win many honors. 
He never worked for marks. He was so busy in the 
investigation of the realm of science that he did not 
set himself to grind on the studies that did not appeal 
to him. He had very respectable marks, however ; he 
was a member of the Phi Beta Kappa Society, which 
is supposed to include the best intellects of the class, 



62 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

and was a member of the Alpha Delta Phi College So- 
ciety, which indicated good intellectual rank. 

While he was a member of the sophomore class his 
name was presented as one of the twelve to be selected 
from his class for the editorial staff of the Harvard 
Advocate, the college organ ; and a committee was ap- 
pointed to examine into his qualifications for that po- 
sition and the chairman of that committee reported 
to the editors: "I cannot see that he is the kind of 
man we want, although I find that he is a thoroughly 
good fellow and much liked by his classmates. I do not 
believe that he has much literary interest. He spends 
his spare time chipping off pieces of rock and exam- 
ining strata, catching butterflies and bugs, and would, 
I think, be better suited for a scientific society than 
for us." The editors rejected him. He was, however, 
elected, some time after, to a position on the editorial 
staff of the Advocate, but did not do any conspicuous 
work. 

He was a game sport but was not large enough to 
figure in football or rowing or most strenuous games. 
He was physically disqualified from being at the front 
or even being included in the coveted team. He did 
some very clever light-weight boxing. There is a story 
that in one of these pugilistic encounters, his adver- 
sary struck him a blow on the nose, starting the red 
current, after time had been called. The spectators 
cried, "Shame," and hissed him. He raised his hand 
demanding silence and called out that the man did not 
intend to give him a foul hit, that he had not heard 
the time called. He shook the man's hand and taking 
his place again gave his antagonist a left stroke on 
the chin that knocked him out for the round. This 
illustrates in the young man the same sense of fair 
play which he practiced himself and asked in others. 



AT HARVARD 63 

The muscles of his legs were not as hard as he desired 
them to be and so he set himself to jumping a rope 
like a girl. He did this with so much enthusiasm 
that hundreds of boys in all the classes got ropes and 
started jumping. 

There was something about the young student that 
was spectacular, that made people look at him and see 
what he was about. They wanted to see him when he 
boxed and they watched him jump the rope. They 
looked at the red and blue athletic stockings which 
he wore, and because the boys did make fun and de- 
mand that he take them off, he the more persistently 
wore them. The whole college knew about the stuffed 
birds and game he had killed, which decorated his 
apartment. They followed him with their eye when 
on his favorite horse he dashed through the streets 
of Cambridge and along the country roads. He was in 
the search of health as well as in the enjoyment of 
sport in his boxing. He was in search of health and 
for scientific knowledge in his trips on horseback and 
on foot. Yet whatever he did, and wherever he went, 
he was the object of attention and of deep interest. 
This was one of his most marked characteristics which 
accompanied him throughout his life. 

He was exceedingly fond of college politics and was 
successful at the game, and had there an excellent 
start in the great lifework which he followed. He 
was also interested in the politics of the nation. In 
a heated campaign, the members of his class who were 
Republicans went over in a body to Boston to join in 
a parade. They carried torchlights and were enthusi- 
astic as all college boys are. As they passed a certain 
house, a man of opposite political opinion, sitting in 
the second-story window laughed and jeered at the 
boys, and he backed up his opposition by throwing a 



64 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

raw potato at the men in the line. Theodore Roose- 
velt rushed out of the line, laid down his torch, shook 
his fist at the man in the window and dared him to 
come down on the pavement and settle the matter on 
the spot. It is said that the man did not come down, 
that the taunts ceased and that no more potatoes were 
wasted. This indignation at an insult, this challenge 
to settle wrong-doing in a summary manner, though 
tempered by tact and experience, as the years passed, 
was one of the things that characterized him always 
and was an element of his greatness. 

Perhaps the strongest mark that Harvard left on 
him was the social one. The fashionable set of Har- 
vard and Boston was a complete change from his al- 
most hermit life at his old home on 20th Street. But 
his home training had prepared him well for the 
social life of Harvard in preparation for the great 
wide world which was to receive him and of which 
he was to form so important a part. This son of 
wealth and aristocracy was immediately given a place 
in the influential social circles at Harvard and in 
Boston. He rode and drove a fast horse; he had a 
fancy high trap ; he knew the rules of good breeding ; 
he had to dress up for dinner at home from the time 
he was a boy, and knew exactly what to do in this 
elegant, influential social circle. It did not spoil him, 
as it does many young men, but aided largely in mak- 
ing him, in giving him social contact with the best 
people, a broader vision of life and a new set of en- 
joyments. The social life he made his servant and not 
his master, for he kept up his hard reading, his scien- 
tific investigation and his literary work besides. Some 
of these sons of splendid families who were in Har- 
vard at the same time he was, and with whom he had 
such intimate social intercourse, became his friends for 



AT HARVARD 65 

life. He mentioned the names of some of them to me 
as having been not only as dear to him as though they 
had been his own kin but also among the strongest 
instruments in his political promotion. 

It seems like a paradox that this smart, rich man's 
son, with his fashionable equipment, his sporting 
habits, his posing as a prize-fighter and a star 
dancer, should be found teaching a Sunday school 
class, and a mission class at that. But the old house 
on 20th Street' had gotten in its work on him so thor- 
oughly that it was the perfectly natural thing for him 
to be regular in his attendance upon church, devoted 
in his religious habits and engaged particularly in 
saving the souls of poor children. He was all through 
his life a paradox. The paradox is only a seeming 
contradiction and not a real one, so that the gay, 
young, rich sport at Harvard and the teacher in the 
mission school were not opposite at all, but the natural 
life of the one person. We doubt whether in all Amer- 
ican life there ever appeared such a paradox as he. 
From the beginning to the end, his life was full of 
apparent contradictions, which were not so at all, but 
in harmony with the same character, spectacular as 
ever. 

There is this incident connected with young 
Roosevelt's teaching of the mission class. He had 
quite a scene in the school. It seems that a boy named 
Joe came into the class one Sunday with a black eye. 
The teacher naturally asked him how he got it. He 
told him that a boy had pinched his sister in Sunday 
school and that he had given the boy a good licking, 
but had himself got the black eye in the encounter. 
The teacher said, *'You did exactly right. Here's a 
dollar I want you to take, as a mark of my apprecia- 
tion of your courage in defending your sister. ' ' The 



66 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

mission class belonged to a high Episcopal church and 
the Sunday school authorities were rather shocked by 
this militant teacher of theirs. They were afraid 
that the doctrine he preached was rather too stren- 
uous ; besides, the young Harvard student got tangled 
in the ritual service at times and, altogether, both the 
officers and the young teacher thought it would be just 
as well for him to offer his services to another Sunday 
school. So he took up a class in a Congregational 
mission Sunday school and remained an intensely pop- 
ular and efficient teacher till the day of his gradua- 
tion. 

Mr. Roosevelt was very fond of his Alma Mater. 
President Roosevelt made an address at a Commence- 
ment dinner at Cambridge, June 25th, 1902. He said, 
* * It was my great good fortune five years ago to serve 
under your President, the* then Secretary of the Navy, 
ex-Govemor Long, and by a strange turn of the wheel 
of fate he served in my Cabinet as long as he would 
consent to serve, and then I had to replace him by an- 
other Harvard man ! I have been fortunate in being 
associated with Senator Hoar, and I should indeed 
think ill of myself if I had not learned something from 
association with a man who possesses that fine and 
noble belief in mankind, the lack of which forbids 
healthy effort to do good in a democracy like ours. I 
have another fellow Harvard man to speak of to-day, 
and it is necessary to paraphrase an old saying in 
order to state the bald truth, that it is indeed a liberal 
education in high-minded statesmanship to sit at the 
same council table with John Hay. ' ' 

Mr. Roosevelt's devotion to Harvard is illustrated 
by this story. It seems that some United States Sen- 
ator had called on the President on an important mat- 
ter. He waited for some time for his turn and asked 



AT HARVARD 67 

the doorkeeper if he would not tell Mr, Roosevelt that 
he was there and would like to have an audience with 
him, which had been made by appointment. The man 
came back with the report that he would see him pres- 
ently. There was another wait of some minutes and 
the Senator rather impatiently sent the doorkeeper in 
to insist that immediate attention be given to him. 
The man came back with the answer that the Presi- 
dent said he was so busy receiving a call from the 
Harvard Baseball Club that the small matter of sen- 
atorial business would have to wait a few minutes. 
And he told a friend afterward that people ought to 
have better sense than to call on him at a time when 
the Harvard boys were making a visit. 

Much as he loved Harvard, he did not hesitate while 
in college, and after he left it, to say some very plain 
things about some things he thought could be im- 
proved upon. 

Theodore's father had talked to him so much about 
the necessity of depending upon himself, to work for 
a living, that he supposed he wanted him to follow 
his own career as a business man and perhaps in con- 
nection with his father's firm on Maiden Lane. But 
the appeal of God through nature to him in his boy- 
hood still sounded in his ears while in college and with 
compelling force. He felt deep down in the bottom 
of his heart that he preferred to be a naturalist and 
determined that he would be such if his father should 
give his consent. This was while he was a freshman 
at Harvard and in an intimate talk with his father 
he revealed his deep desire and asked his father's 
consent that he should give himself up to natural 
science and prepare himself for a professorship in 
some university. His father gave his consent and at 
the same time told him that he would leave him money 



68 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

enough so that he might devote his life without any 
concern about a living to the work of a naturalist. 
He said to him" that the money he would leave him 
would not support him in extravagance, but would 
take comfortable care of him and told him that if he 
wanted the extras, ''the butter and jam," as he called 
them, he would have to get them out of his salary 
or profession. He was greatly delighted when his 
father gave his consent to the devotion of his life to 
science. 

About a year from that time his father died, but he 
continued his college course with the understanding 
that he would* be a naturalist and a professor of some 
department of science in a university. But as he 
drew near the day of his graduation, he became mixed 
in his mind as to the wisdom of the calling he had 
selected. The work done in botany and in zoology at 
Harvard and most other universities in this country 
was done most of it indoors under the microscope, and 
his free nature craved the out-of-door investigation, 
the field work of the science. He felt that he would 
be too circumscribed in a professor's chair. But he 
did not know what to do, as two or three other callings 
suggeste(i' themselves to him. So he went up to the 
silence and solitude at the summit of the Alps to talk 
with* God about it. And the God who spoke to Moses 
on the Mount spoke to him. In the execution of his 
Divine commission he came down from the mountain 
and passed through the doorway of a law office out 
into the public life to which he felt he had been called, 
and where he believed he would best develop himself, 
serve his f ellowmen and honor his God. 



MEMBER OF STATE ASSEMBLY 



CHAPTER IV 
MEMBER OF STATE ASSEMBLY 

THE year after Roosevelt's graduation at Har- 
vard was spent in travel and study. During 
that period he did some tall mountain-climbing 
and was admitted to the famous Alpine Club of Lon- 
don, his sponsors being Mr. Bryce and Mr. Buxton, 
distinguished men who became his lifelong friends. 
In the fall of 1881 he entered the law school of Co- 
lumbia College and read law in the office of his uncle, 
Robert B. Roosevelt. His uncle was a prominent Re- 
publican leader with high moral principles, who was 
chairman of the Citizens' Committee of Seventy, dur- 
ing the fight against Boss Tweed and his "ring." He 
was a member of the New York City Board of Alder- 
men, was President of the New York International 
Association for the Protection of Game and one of the 
founders of the New York State Fishery Commission. 
He was United States Minister to the Netherlands 
and was himself an author. Young Roosevelt, in this 
highly charged, political atmosphere, with his strong 
intention to enter public life, soon took his attention 
away from the college law course and his uncle's of- 
fice and entered New York City politics at the bottom 

71 



72 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

of the ladder. His residence was in the 21st assembly 
district, and he began immediately acquainting him- 
self with the members of the precinct and district 
committees and engaging in practical work at the 
primaries. 

The 21st assembly district contained a strip along 
Fifth Avenue, including some of the richest families 
in the city, and went over into the East Side, in- 
cluding a larger number of the plainer people and 
those who were under the domination of Tammany 
Hall. Some of the richest and most intelligent citi- 
zens in the Fifth Avenue neighborhood felt that their 
district had been under bad leadership and under 
poor representation at Albany; that the baser ele- 
ment was predominant. The ward heelers felt, them- 
selves, that in order to obtain money for the cam- 
paigns and the votes of the richer element, it would 
be better to run a highbrow on their ticket for the 
assembly. Young Roosevelt, then about twenty- 
three years of age, consented to be a candidate for the 
Legislature if nominated. Jacob Hess, the district 
boss, was not friendly to the proposition, but Joe Mur- 
ray, a rival leader, espoused Roosevelt's cause, and 
he was nominated. 

To launch the campaign, a dinner was given at Del- 
monico's. Boys from the East Side were not in evi- 
dence, the nabobs were out in force. The young can- 
didate read a written address, which occupied a full 
hour's time, m an emphatic but not inspirational man- 
ner, but he laid down rock-bottom facts. He ar- 
raigned in detail the evils in the municipality, State 
and nation. He told what the remedies should be. He 
said that if they were to elect him he would do his 
very best to check, in the city and State, evils that 
were so apparent. Persons who were there said that 



MEMBER OF STATE ASSEMBLY 73 

in every essential act Roosevelt 's public life from that 
day till his death was the unfolding of the principles 
of justice, truth, right, mercy, love and a courageous 
warfare against wrong, which he laid down as a chart 
in his speech that night. 

Politics in New York have always been corrupt 
enough, but they were singularly so when young 
Roosevelt entered the fight for the Legislature. Not 
only the conventions of Tammany Hall, but of the 
Republicans as well, were held over saloons, and the 
saloonkeepers, as a rule, were the political bosses and 
very often political candidates. Young Roosevelt was 
told by his rich neighbors that politics were so rotten 
that he could not afford to spoil himself in a political 
canvass ; that the Republican leaders were saloonkeep- 
ers, street ear drivers and the like ; and his reply was, 
"If you men of education, culture, wealth and re- 
ligious professions have no more interest in your own 
government than to let such men rule you, you de- 
serve to be misruled and are largely responsible be- 
fore God and man for the corruption of the city 
politics. ' ' 

The leaders took the young candidate into the saloon 
neighborhood of the East Side to confer with the boys. 
Valentine Young, a saloonkeeper, said, *'Mr. Roose- 
velt, if you are elected, we liquor dealers will expect 
you to do fairly by us. ' ' He answered promptly, * ' If 
I am elected, I expect to deal fairly with all my con- 
stituents." The man said, "Our license is too high, 
and we expect if you are elected that you will reduce 
it considerably." He said, "My friend, your license 
is far too low, and if I am elected you may expect me 
to use my influence in raising it." Jake Hess and 
Joe Murray drew him one side and told him he had 
better go back on Fifth Avenue and take care of the 



74 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

rich crowd up there. He did stir the highbrows in the 
millionaire district. The richest men in the city 
turned out and canvassed for him; his sister, Mrs. 
Douglas Robinson, folded ballots for him; her hus- 
band paid $2.00 for a table on which were placed cam- 
paign literature and ballots. Dean Van Amrige of 
Columbia headed a band of college students who 
worked like beavers until the poles were closed. 
Young Roosevelt was elected and took his seat as the 
youngest member of the Legislature, as he was later 
the youngest President of the United States. 

Elected as a Republican, he was a member of the 
minority in the Assembly and unknown politically. 
His first speech, however, made a sensation. His op- 
portunity came when a fellow Assemblyman made a 
speech in which he dealt with many historical facts. 
Roosevelt's speech, although impromptu, showed such 
knowledge of these facts and such a grasp of the sub- 
ject that he was widely complimented by opponents 
and supporters. His rise in rank in the Assembly 
was startlingly rapid. The second year of his mem- 
bership he was the Republican candidate for Speaker. 
It was a Democratic house, but the honor was, never- 
theless, a great one for a young man, and on its ac- 
count he was made floor leader. In his third year 
as an Assemblyman he was put at the head of the 
important Committee of Cities, having proved his 
thorough knowledge of municipal affairs. 

During his term in the Legislature, he interested 
himself in tenement house reform. His father had 
been the champion of the poor people of the East 
Side, especially the neglected children of that district. 
He himself knew the uncomfortable and unhealthy 
tenement houses that existed in such large numbers. 
As an Assemblyman, he went down into those dis- 



MEMBER OF STATE ASSEMBLY 75 

tricts and saw what was necessary and introduced a 
bill, which was passed, but which was declared by the 
courts to be unconstitutional. He had the privilege 
afterward, however, while a member of the health 
board and police commissioner of New York, to effect 
many of the reforms which he had proposed while 
he was a member of the Assembly. 

As the chairman of the important committee on 
cities he instituted an investigation of the municipal 
administration of New York, which was called the 
' ' Roosevelt Committee. ' ' In that investigation one of 
the officers on the witness stand could not remember 
whether the expenses in the campaign were over or 
under fifty thousand dollars. A little item like that 
had entirely escaped his memory. Another officer ad- 
mitted that he made legally eighty thousand dollars a 
year. Assemblyman Roosevelt introduced measures 
which put a stop to all of these excessively high sal- 
aries and made uncomfortable the use of such slush 
funds in political campaigns by either party. 

One of the great sources of evil in New York City 
was the power of confirmation the Board of Alder- 
men had over the Mayor's appointments, rendering a 
good Mayor who wanted to do right, powerless in the 
hands of a Tammany Board of Aldermen, which 
seemed to continue from year to year. Assemblyman 
Roosevelt secured the passage of a bill that stopped 
that source of evil. 

Young Roosevelt was re-elected to the Legislature 
of 1883 and re-elected again to that of 1884. During 
these three years he was consistent with himself, and 
with the Roosevelt of history, in fighting fearlessly 
every wrong, at whatever cost, and in maintaining 
everything he considered to be right. 
Perhaps the most spectacular event during his three 



76 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

years in the Legislature was his fight for the impeach- 
ment of a prominent judge. One of the corrupt com- 
binations which had largely controlled the Legisla- 
ture under both parties, backed an attempt of one of 
the elevated railroads to rob the State through vile 
legislation. They were aided not only by certain mem- 
bers of the Legislature, but by Republican and Demo- 
cratic leaders. And the judiciary was also involved 
in the charges of corruption. A prosecuting attorney 
and a corrupt Supreme Court judge were under deep 
suspicion. Young Roosevelt, feeling sure that the 
judge was in criminal complicity with the thieves, 
fought him desperately and demanded his impeach- 
ment. His charges were made with a boldness that 
was almost startling. The members gave the closest 
attention and he went through without interruption. 
"We have a right," cried Roosevelt, in closing, "to 
demand that our judiciary shall be kept beyond re- 
proach, and we have a right to demand that, if we 
find men acting so that there is not only a suspicion, 
but almost a certainty, that they have had dealings 
with men whose interests were in conflict with those 
of the public, they should be at least required to prove 
that the charges are untrue. ' ' 

Meanwhile, "mysterious" influences were at work 
to cover up the scandal. A messenger from John 
Kelly, a boss of Tammany Hall, hurried to Albany. 
Agents "from wealthy stock gamblers" whom Roose- 
velt had openly denounced as "swindlers" appeared 
in the lobby of the Capitol. Roosevelt himself was 
urged, not only by his enemies, but by his friends, 
not to press the hopeless contest. They pointed out to 
him that, with "the interests" against him, he could 
never in the world secure the passage of the resolu- 



MEMBER OF STATE ASSEMBLY 77 

tion. They made clear to him that he was ruining his 
promising career. 

He had friends, moreover, who played the game of 
his enemies. There was a prominent lawyer, for in- 
stance, an old family friend, who took him out to 
lunch one day. "You've done well in the Legisla- 
ture, Theodore," he remarked. "It's a good thing to 
make a 'reform play.' It attracts attention. You've 
shown that you possess ability of the sort that will 
make you useful in a large law office or business. But 
if I were you I don't think I'd overplay my hand." 
"Eh?" interrupted Roosevelt. "You've gone far 
enough," the lawyer went on calmly. "Now it's time 
for you to leave politics and identify yourself with the 
right kind of people." "The right kind—" "The 
people who control others and in the long run always 
will control others and get the only rewards that are 
worth having." "You mean to say," cried Roosevelt 
hotly, "that you want me to give in to the 'ring'?" 

The old man answered impatiently : "You're talking 
like a newspaper. You're entirely mistaken if you 
think there is a 'ring', made up of a few corrupt 
politicians, who control the government. Those men 
have only limited power. The actual power is in the 
hands of a certain inner circle of big business men. 
The big politicians, lawyers, judges, are in alliance 
with them and, in a sense, dependent on them. No 
young man can succeed in law, business or politics 
who hasn't the backing of those forces. That is as it 
should be. For it is merely the recognition that busi- 
ness is supremely important and that everything else 
must bow to it." 

Theodore Roosevelt had never before come in con- 
tact with that point of view, and it gave him a shock. 
It threw a vivid light backward on the impeachment 



78 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

investigation. He understood now how, with all the 
evidence against the venal judge and the people of 
the State of New York calling for his impeachment, 
he had nevertheless escaped. 

Theodore did not take his friend 's advice. ' * I think 
I '11 try to go back to the Legislature, ' ' he said. And 
he did. 

They miscounted the vote and practiced every trick 
and fraud possible and defeated the young reformer 
in his impeachment of the judge, but his brave fight 
for honesty, a pure judiciary and clean politics in that 
case attracted the attention of the whole nation, 
stirred its moral conscience to the depths and made 
him, on the very threshold of his public life, a nation- 
wide character. No Assemblyman in America, during 
his one term, ever made so profound an impression 
upon the public thought or conscience of the country. 

He had such influence in the State Legislature, 
in the city and State politics that it would be surpris- 
ing if his success and flatterers had not turned his 
head. He says plainly that they did, and that during 
his experience as an Assemblyman he learned one of 
the greatest lessons of his public life and that is, 
that a man must not only be right, maintain the right, 
and fight for the right, but that he must have enough 
other people to think and feel as he does on essentials 
to act with him politically. He expresses this political 
self-conceit and his cure of it in the following words : 

*'I suppose," he said, ''that my head was swelled. 
It would not be strange if it was. I stood out for my 
own opinion, alone. I took the best mugwump stand : 
my own consciences, my own judgment, were to decide 
in all things. I would listen to no arguments, no ad- 
vice. I took the isolated peak on every issue, and 
my people left me. When I looked around, before the 



MEMBER OF STATE ASSEMBLY 79 

session was well under way, I found myself alone. 
I was absolutely deserted. Men from Erie, from Suf- 
folk, from anywhere, would not work with me. 'He 
won't listen to anybody,' they said, and I would not. 
My isolated peak had become a valley; every bit of 
influence I had was gone. The things I wanted to do 
I was powerless to accomplish. What did I do? I 
looked the ground over and made up my mind that 
there were several other excellent people there, with 
honest opinions of the right, even though they were 
different from mine. I turned in to help them, and 
they turned to and gave me a hand. And so we 
were able to get things done. We did not agree in 
all things, but we did in some, and those we pulled 
at together. That was my first lesson in real politics. 
It is just this : If you are cast on a desert island with 
only a screw-driver, a hatchet, and a chisel to make a 
boat with, why, go make the best one you can. It 
would be better if you had a saw, but you haven't. 
So with men. Here is my friend in Congress who is 
a good man, a strong man, but cannot be made to 
believe in some things which I trust. It is too bad 
that he doesn't look at it as I do, but he does not, and 
we have to work together as we can. There is a point, 
of course, where a man must take the isolated peak 
and break with it all for clear principle, but until it 
comes he must work, if he would be of use, with men 
as they are. As long as the good in them overbalances 
the evil, let him work with that for the best that can 
begot." 

Mr. Roosevelt during his term in the Assembly had 
secured such a hold on the leadership of the Repub- 
lican party of the state that he was chosen one of the 
four delegates-at-large to the National Convention in 
Chicago in 1884. 



80 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

He had the honor of being the chairman of the 
great New York State delegation, and was one of the 
most spectacular members of that convention, partly 
because in his short public life he had attracted na- 
tional attention on account of his rigid m.oral reform 
notions and activities, but also because with George 
William Curtis, Carl Schurtz and others, he was in 
favor of George F. Edmunds of Vermont as a can- 
didate against Mr. Blaine. Blaine was nominated; 
Curtis, Schurtz and a number of other Republican 
leaders bolted the ticket and voted for Cleveland. 
They supposed of course that Roosevelt, who was the 
real Edmunds leader, would follow them, but they 
were mistaken. To a friend he wrote a letter which 
announced his intentions as follows: "I intend to 
vote the Republican Presidential ticket. A man can- 
not act both without and within the party ; he can do 
either, but he cannot possibly do both. I went in with 
my eyes open to do what I could within the party; 
I did my best and got beaten, and I propose to stand 
by the result. I am by inheritance and by education 
a Republican ; whatever good I have been able to ac- 
complish has been through the Republican party; I 
have acted with it in the past, and I wish to act with 
it in the future." 



EANCH LIFE 



CHAPTER V 
RANCH LIFE 

THIS Harvard graduate, this brilliant young 
statesman, needed another important factor to 
make him the great man that he was, and that 
was, the tuition of nature herself. And so, impelled 
by his instincts and judgment, he entered the great 
university of the Wild West, graduation from which 
was as necessary as from Harvard, to make him the 
ideal leader of the century. He had a playful spirit 
which reveled in sport, and was passionately fond of 
nature. His father knew how good the country was 
for the boy's body and mind and he arranged it so 
that all his summers were spent in the country with 
the birds, with the flowers and fields, and forests, and 
river, and bay, and horse, and oar, and gun. And 
when he got older, he sought the solitudes of the 
mountains and of the woods, making hunting trips 
during his vacation at Harvard for deer and elk to 
the Adirondacks and the big woods of Maine. These 
trips were an excellent preparation for the limitless 
ranges of the Wild West, for the paradise of the na- 
ture lover or the "grizzly" hunter. While he was a 
member of the Legislature, he broke away, beguiled 

83 



84 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

irresistibly by the charms of Western life, and made 
a hunting trip for Buffalo in North Dakota. In his 
"Wilderness Hunter" he thus states the impression 
made by Western nature scenes upon the one visiting 
them: "In after years there shall come forever to 
his mind the memory of endless prairies shimmering 
in the bright sun; of vast, snow-clad wastes, lying 
desolate under gray skies ; of the melancholy marshes ; 
of the rush of mighty rivers; of the breath of the 
evergreen forest in summer; of the crooning of ice- 
armored pines at the touch of the winds of winter ; of 
cataracts roaring between hoary mountain passes ; of 
all the innumerable sights and sounds of the wilder- 
ness and of the silences that brood in its still depths. ' ' 

He liked the rugged hunters, ranchmen and cow- 
boys, as much as he did the plains and mountains 
and the free air of the West. He hunted, camped, 
rode and mingled with them on their plains and fell 
in love with them, so much so that before he returned 
home from his trip he had purchased the Chimney 
Butte Ranch near Medora, North Dakota, for $45,000, 
giving his check on the spot for the first payment of 
$10,000. 

In the year 1884 a double sorrow fell upon Mr. 
Roosevelt, the death of his mother, and within two 
months of that time, the death of his first wife. Miss 
Alice Hathaway Lee, of Boston, whom he married just 
after his graduation. She died after she had given to 
him a daughter, who is now Mrs. Alice Longworth. 
In his sorrow he flew to God's book and spirit for 
comfort, and then his impulses drew him out into the 
solitude and stillness of nature that he might com- 
mune with nature's God, and rest his spirit in the 
chase. In the same year his fight for Edmunds 
against Blaine in the convention had completely elimi- 



RANCH LIFE 85 

nated him as a political leader and he had the time 
and disposition to betake himself to the wide spaces, 
solitudes and the strenuous hunting of the West. So 
he went out to live with the cattle and with those 
hearty men and with those big beasts that roam the 
forests. On the place he bought, on a side overlook- 
ing the Little Missouri, he found the skulls of two 
huge elks with horns interlocked; both had died in 
their last desperate fight. Just here he built his 
log house and called it Elk Horn Eanch. 

The late Julian Ralph in an interview with Mr. 
Roosevelt reports him as saying: "A man with a 
horse and a gun is a picture or idea that has always 
appealed to me. Wayne Reid's heroes and the life 
out West also always appealed to me. I wanted to 
see the rude, rough, formative life in the Far West 
before it vanished. I went there just in time. I was 
in at the killing of the buffalo, in the last big hunt, 
in 1883, near Pretty Buttes, when the whites and the 
Sioux from Standing Rock and Pine Ridge were do- 
ing the killing. I went West while I was in the As- 
sembly, in the long vacations — went hunting — went 
to the Bad Lands and shot elk, sheep, deer, buffalo, 
and antelope. I made two hunting trips, and in 1884 
I started my cattle ranch. After my term in the 
Legislature, and until I was appointed Civil Service 
Commissioner, I lived most of the time out West in 
the summers and spent only the winters in New York. 
I never was happier in my life. My house out there 
is a long low house of hewn logs, which I helped 
to build myself. It has a broad veranda and rocking- 
chairs and a big fireplace and elk skins and wolf skins 
scattered about, — on the brink of the Little Missouri, 
right in a clump of cotton woods ; and less than three 
years ago I shot a deer from the veranda. I kept my 



86 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

books there, — such as I wanted, — and did a deal of 
writing, being the rest of the time out all day in every 
kind of weather. ' ' 

He was not a gentleman ranchman, but was an 
actual, practical cowboy, an expert cowpuncher, with 
long hours in the saddle, with strenuous and annoying 
struggles with contrary cattle in the round-ups and at 
other times. He never spared himself doing all that 
he required of the cowboys he hired, and more too. 
And for recreation he went out into the deep forests 
and rugged mountains and hunted for big game. 

Colonel Roosevelt told me a story connected with 
his ranch life which was thoroughly amusing. He 
said, on returning from the East to his ranch, he 
found that the boys gave him condensed milk for his 
coffee. He asked the cook, ''What does this mean, 
condensed milk with hundreds of cows with calves in 
the herds?" The cook replied, "Boss, will you go 
milkin' with the boys to get some cream for to-mor- 
row?" And he said, "I certainly will." **We got 
our ponies and ropes and went out to the herd," he 
continued. **We picked out a fine, healthy-looking 
creature that we thought would give us the supply 
we needed. She looked right up into my face and in 
her eye said to me, 'I know what you are after, and 
you 're not going to get me. ' And in a flash she darted 
off, running as fast as she could, and we boys after 
her as fast as our ponies could go. One of the men 
threw the lasso, catching her head at the horns and 
held her ; we threw her down on the ground, tied her 
legs together and by actual force took the milk away 
from her. I never had much more fun in my life 
than I did at that milking bee. The fun was worth 
all the trouble, but I never after that asked for milk 
fresh from the cow for my coffee." Whether this 



RANCH LIFE 87 

is the same celebrated old roan cow, the story of which 
has made so many millions laugh, I do not know, but 
he told it with a relish and hearty laugh which made 
it one of the funniest I ever heard. 

In his life on the plains he met with many tough 
characters, some of whom undertook to impose upon 
him, but always with damage to themselves. The fol- 
lowing incident records one of these encounters: 

In the public room of a frontier hotel where he was to 
spend the night, Roosevelt was reading one evening after 
supper, shortly after his arrival in the West. The room was 
dining-room, bar-room, office and living-room, and it was 
crowded. A swaggering fellow stepped up to the bar and 
ordered everybody to drink. Only Roosevelt remained 
seated. He continued reading. 

"Who's that fellow?" demanded the man at the bar. 

"He's a tenderfoot," was the response. 

"Hey, you, Mr. Four-eyes!" shouted the Westerner, "I 
asked this house to drink. D'you hear?" 

No reply came from Roosevelt. The Westerner pulled his 
pistol, fired across the room and advanced on the tender- 
foot with his smoking weapon. 

"When I ask a man to drink with me I want him to do 
as I ask," he declared. 

The young Roosevelt, who had watched the advance across 
the room from under his eyelashes, glanced up and asked 
to be excused. 

"Not much," was the reply. "That don't go down here. 
Order your drink." 

The young man from the East got up easily from his 
chair, remarking: "Very well, if I must, I " 

With the pause in the words came a full right swinging 
jolt that took the Westerner on the point of the jaw and 
laid him on the floor. He was astride him and pinioned 
his arms. Then he threw the bully's pistol across the room 
and, staring at him through his glasses, snapped through 
the teeth that later were to become so familiar to the Ameri- 
can public: "And when I intimate that I don't care to 
drink with you, just understand that I don't care to drink." 

Referring to this incident Roosevelt himself made this 



88 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

comment: "I was never shot at maliciously but once. My 
assailant was a broad-hat old ruffian of a cheap type. The 
fact that I wore glasses, together with my evident ardent 
desire to avoid a fight, apparently gave him the impression 
— a mistaken one — that I would not resent an injury." 

"What enormous exertion was involved in climbing 
those rugged mountains and in pursuing those large 
^nd dangerous wild beasts! Yet he did it all with 
eagerness because he loved it. This cowboy ranchman 
in scuffling with his herds, this mighty hunter with 
his gun, built up one of the most powerful bodies in 
America and at the same time contributed to the 
building up of one of the greatest minds in America. 
The vigor of that out-of-door life got into his every 
muscle and nerve, into his every word and into every 
act he performed in after life. 

It so happened that Theodore Roosevelt, up to 
the time of his election, was the only man but one 
who was born in a city who ever became President, 
and that was Hayes, who was born in Dayton, Ohio. 
Since his time two other city-bred men have occupied 
the "White House — Taft, who was born in Cincinnati, 
and Wilson, who was bom at Norfolk, Virginia. If 
Theodore Roosevelt had stayed in New York or even 
had gone only to Harvard, likely, he never would 
have been President. The life of the cowboy and the 
hunter was necessary to fit him for the Presidency. 
The silence and solitude and life of nature developed 
the creative faculty as nothing else could. It was be- 
cause Lincoln was such a simple child of nature, and 
was with nature so much in its silence and solitude, 
that the reflective faculty was so strongly developed 
in him, that faculty so necessary for the highest type 
of leadership among men. 

Mr. Roosevelt's life in the West brought him into 
contact not only with cattle and cowboys and guides 



RANCH LIFE 89 

and ''grizzly" bears, but it brought him into contact 
with the virility and progress of a pioneer civiliza- 
tion. One of the most statesmanlike acts of any 
President was the Louisiana Purchase, negotiated by 
Thomas Jefferson in December, 1803, for $15,000,000. 
He bought of France the territory embraced by the 
modern states of Arkansas, Missouri, Iowa, Minne- 
sota west of the Mississippi, North Dakota, South Da- 
kota, Nebraska, nearly all Kansas, and Oklahoma, the 
portions of Montana, Wyoming, and Colorado east 
of the Rocky Mountains, and Louisiana west of the 
Mississippi, but including New Orleans. It would 
take very many billions of dollars to buy this ter- 
ritory now with its abundant crops and precious 
mines. This was the great empire which appealed to 
the young Roosevelt, which he thought about, wrote 
about in his ''Winning of the West," and which he 
knew thoroughly by residence in it and his active par- 
ticipation in its affairs. 

In his address at the laying of the cornerstone of 
the Lewis and Clark memorial at Portland, Oregon, 
May 21st, 1903, he thus refers to the population en- 
tering upon this Northwest Territory : ' ' We come here 
to-day to lay the cornerstone of a monument that is 
to call to mind the greatest single pioneering feat on 
this continent, the voyage across the continent by 
Lewis and Clark, which rounded out the ripe states- 
manship of Jefferson and his fellows by giving to the 
United States all of the domain between the Missis- 
sippi and the Pacific. Following their advent came 
the reign of the fur trade ; and then, some sixty years 
ago, those entered whose children and children's chil- 
dren were to possess the land. Across the continent 
in the early 40 's came the ox-drawn, canvas-topped 
wagons bearing the pioneers, the stalwart, sturdy, 



90 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

sun-burned men, with their wives and their little ones, 
who entered into this country to possess it. You have 
built up here this wonderful commonwealth, a com- 
monwealth great in its past and injB.nitely greater in 
its future. The men gave us this region because they 
were not afraid, because they did not seek the living 
of ease and safety, because their life training was not 
to shrink from obstacles, but to meet and overcome 
them." 

Roosevelt, the ranchman, had a prophet's eye and 
saw the great material, mental and moral civilization 
that was to possess that empire; he knew what busy 
men would till the ground over which his cattle 
grazed ; and what thrifty cities would occupy the vast 
plains; and what a population would adorn them. 
Up to the time he went out to his ranch on the plains, 
the Eastern people knew very little about the prairies 
of the "West. Until about 1850 little was known about 
the prairies by American authors, who for the most 
part were men of the Atlantic seaboard, who had sel- 
dom if ever passed the Alleghanies. Longfellow, 
Lowell and Whittier knew the old West only by hear- 
say. Only Irving and one or two other prominent 
literary men had some personal knowledge of it. The 
men of the West were too busy taming the wilderness 
to write romance or poetry about the new home of 
literature. To the literary people of the country the 
prairie was the great American desert. The settler 
without capital took the treeless prairies in hand be- 
cause they were cheap and treeless land, and found 
that they would grow grass and grain. The railroads 
came and brought them fuel and a market for their 
crops. The sod house or hut of cottonwood logs gave 
way to the square pine house of one story, and then 
a house like the one they had left in the East; and 



RANCH LIFE 91 

now has come the home of fine architecture and in- 
terior decoration and lovely grounds. Those vast, 
monotonous, marshy districts have been transmuted 
into a veritable garden. The social evolution of the 
prairie has been as marked as its material progress. 
It is an empire of hardy, intelligent, industrious, 
thrifty and virtuous people, who fear God and love 
men, who want the school and church, but who will 
not tolerate the saloon. 

The evolution of the forest and the mountain has 
been almost as great as that of the prairie. Sharp 
axes have turned the forest into productive farms, 
and the rugged hand of industry has turned many 
mountain districts into fruitful farms with thrifty 
cities. 

Roosevelt wrote about the "Winning of the West'* 
— he, himself, won the West as no other one man ever 
did. He knew intimately its geography, its farms, its 
forestry, its mines, its population, its characteristics 
and the wild creatures that inhabit it. No man living 
ever interpreted that western life as well as he, and 
no one ever incarnated it in his thought and action 
as he did — that irresistible strenuousness greater than 
that of any man of our time was literally a fresh 
breeze from the West, its prairies, its mountains, its 
sea. 

After eighteen years of home life, four years at 
Harvard, three years in the Assembly, he was fortu- 
nate in having this post-graduate course of three years 
in the university of the great West to fit him for 
the supreme place in our nation. 



CIVIL SERVICE COMMISSION 



CHAPTER VI 
CIVIL SERVICE COMMISSION 

AFTER these strenuous and profitable years of 
ranch life, Mr. Roosevelt's eye turned back to 
the great city again and to the whirl of poli- 
tics for which he seems to have been made. He led 
the Republican ticket in a three-cornered fight for 
the mayoralty of New York City, in which Abram 
S. Hewitt ran on the Democratic ticket and Henry 
George on the United Labor platform. Mr. Hewitt 
was elected Mayor. Mr. Roosevelt came out third in 
the race. His friends thought he could have been 
elected, if a large number of Republicans had not 
been afraid that Henry George, with his new theory 
of which they had suspicions, at least, would win. 
Hence, they voted the Democratic ticket. Though de- 
feated in this mayoralty fight, he again became a na- 
tional figure by the things he said and did in the cam- 
paign, and by the fact that so young a man as he 
should be put at the head of the Republican ticket 
for such a responsible office. 

He had supported Benjamin Harrison in his cam- 
paign for the Presidency, and Mr. Harrison appointed 
him as a Civil Service Commissioner, a job which 

95 



96 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

nobody wanted, as it was so very unpopular, but 
which Mr. Roosevelt accepted, with gratitude, because^ 
he saw in it an opportunity for usefulness; a call to* 
carry out notions of reform which he had had in his 
own mind for a number of years, and the chance to 
fight what he thought was one of the greatest evils 
of American polities and one of the greatest dangers 
to the American commonwealth. It would be hard 
to find words to express the difficulty of the task to 
which he was called. For seventy years it had been 
understood, by all political parties, that the offices of 
the government were to go, with the election, to those 
who were victorious. It was almost universally un- 
derstood that the spoils of office belonged to the suc- 
cessful candidates, and the bosses saw to it that their 
henchmen received them. And the ward politician, 
the Assemblyman, the Congressman, the United States 
Senator paid their election debts with the offices they 
distributed. 

During those seventy years the average man said, 
"What are we in politics for, if it is not for the of- 
fices?" This rule that "to the victor belong the 
spoils" led to much corruption and bribe-taking. The 
spoils-giver and the spoils-receiver naturally became 
the bribe-givers and bribe-takers and a deep-seated, 
moral corruption polluted and threatened to destroy 
our free form of government. Some wise statesman 
had secured the passage of a National Civil Service 
Law. This law had been on the statute books only 
six years when this vigorous ranchman-reformer took 
his place on that commission. The law was a dead 
letter, and the leaders of both parties did all they 
could to keep it so. 

Immediately upon taking office he did as he always 
had done, felt the sanctity of his oath and set himself 



CIVIL SERVICE COMMISSION 97 

to work, whole-heartedly, to keep it. At the very start 
in his office he commenced to make the fur fly in every 
direction. He did not hesitate to tackle the most in- 
fluential member of the House of Representatives, or 
Senate of the United States, or even a member of the 
Cabinet and rebuke his wrong-doing in upholding the 
spoils system and fighting the Civil Service Commis- 
sion. Failing to repeal the law, they cast reflection 
constantly on his administration of it, and were con- 
tinually asking for some kind of investigation to ham- 
per or destroy the working of the law. 

In one of those investigations one of the insolent 
advocates of the spoils of office in criticising the law 
said, "You yourself. Commissioner Roosevelt, cannot 
take an examination which you require all candidates 
for office to take, on the question of handwriting, for 
instance, with those little pinched letters which look 
like a lady's hand?" The Commissioner replied 
promptly, "That is true. I perhaps cannot take a 
position as a clerk in a department, but I am not 
applying for that place, and I am qualifled to be a 
Commissioner of Civil Service, I think, and maintain 
its principle in the face of you men who are doing 
so much to break it down and injure our govern- 
mental system." 

Afterward President Roosevelt thus recommends the 
civil service idea to the administration in the Philip- 
pine Islands: "This should no more be a party ques- 
tion than the war for the Union should have been a 
party question. At this moment the man in highest 
office in the Philippine Islands is the Vice-Governor, 
General Luke Wright, of Tennessee, who gallantly 
wore the gray in the Civil War and who is now 
working hand in hand with the head of our army in 
the Philippines, Adna Chaffee, who in the Civil War 



98 THEODOEE ROOSEVELT 

gallantly wore the blue. Those two, and the men 
under them, from the North and from the South, in 
civil life and in military life, as teachers, as admin- 
istrators, as soldiers, are laboring mightily for us who 
live at home. Here and there black sheep are to be 
found among them ; but, taken as a whole, they repre- 
sent as high a standard of public service as this coun- 
try has ever seen. They are doing a great work for 
civilization, a great work for the honor and the in- 
terest of this nation, and, above all, for the welfare of 
the inhabitants of the Philippine Islands. ' ' 

On another occasion, as President, he thus speaks 
in words of commendation of the successful working 
of the civil service department of the government: 
"The civil service law has been on the statute books 
for twenty-two years. Every President, and a vast 
majority of heads of departments who have been 
in office during that period, have favored a gradual 
extension of the merit system. The more thoroughly 
its principles have been understood, the greater ha& 
been the favor with which the law has been regarded 
by administrative officers. Any attempt to carry on 
the great executive departments of the government 
without this law would inevitably result in chaos. 
The Civil Service Commissioners are doing excellent 
work ; and their compensation is inadequate, consider- 
ing the service they perform. 

*'The statement that the examinations are not prac- 
tical in character is based on a misapprehension of the 
practice of the Commission. The departments are 
invariably consulted as to the requirements desired 
and as to the character of questions that shall be 
asked. General invitations are frequently sent out 
to all heads of departments asking whether any 
changes in the scope or character of examinations are 



CIVIL SERVICE COMMISSION 99 

required. In other words, the departments prescribe 
the requirements and the qualifications desired, and 
the Civil Service Commission cooperates with them in 
securing persons with these qualifications and insur- 
ing open and impartial competition. In a large num- 
ber of examinations (as, for example, those for trades 
positions) there are no educational requirements what- 
ever, and a person who can neither read nor write 
may pass with a high average. Vacancies in the ser- 
vice are filled with reasonable expedition and the ma- 
chinery of the Commission, which reaches every part 
of the country, is the best agency that has yet been 
devised for finding people, with the most suitable 
qualifications, for the various offices to be filled. 
Written competitive examinations do not make an 
ideal method for filling positions, but. they do repre- 
sent an immeasurable advance upon the ''spoils" 
method, under which outside politicians really made 
the appointments nominally made by the executive 
officers, the appointees being chosen by the politicians 
in question, in the great majority of cases, for reasons 
totally unconnected with the needs of the service or 
of the public. ' ' 

Col. E. W. Halford, for twenty-five years the able 
editor of the Indianapolis Journal, who had more to 
do than any other one man in making Benjamin Har- 
rison President, and who was the private secretary to 
Benjamin Harrison, was largely responsible for the 
appointment of Theodore Roosevelt to the head of the 
Civil Service Commission, and thus gave him his first 
office under the Federal administration. Knowing 
this fact and having been a personal friend of Colonel 
Halford for over fifty years, I went over to his office 
on Fifth Avenue, New York, and asked him to tell me 
something about Mr. Roosevelt's relation to the Civil 



100 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

Service Commission to put in this chapter. He cheer- 
fully consented and gave me the following facts, say- 
ing that he had given some of them to the Christian 
Advocate and Leslie's Weekly for publication. 

He said, "Mr. Roosevelt was in the forefront of 
civil service advocates, and knowing me wrote, urging 
that Harrison should take strong grounds for that re- 
form, which the general did, both in his letter of ac- 
ceptance and inaugural address. My diary shows 
that on the 19th of April, 1889, Mr. Lodge, then a 
member of the House, called at my room in the "White 
House and suggested the appointment of Mr. Roose- 
velt, in the reorganization of the Civil Service Board. 
That afternoon, during one of the daily walks to- 
gether after the office routine, I discussed with the 
President the suggestion Mr. Lodge had made. This 
was repeated as occasion arose, and on May 3rd the 
President directed me to wire Mr. Roosevelt to come 
to Washington. On the 6th of May he had an inter- 
view with the President, and on the 7th of May he 
was commissioned as Civil Service Commissioner. On 
the 13th of May Mr, Roosevelt wrote me a note which 
I have just re-read as follows : 

" 'Please tender to the President my appreciation 
of the honor conferred upon me, which I shall do my 
best to deserve. I also wish to thank you, particu- 
larly, for what you have done. I think the President 
nominating Halford a brave as well as a wise act.' 

' * I had not kept in mind this last somewhat cryptic 
remark, and am now puzzled by it. Of the President's 
wisdom, of course, there can be no doubt; but just 
what Roosevelt had in mind as to the President's 
'bravery' I cannot imagine, unless it was because of 
my birthplace, which, as I now recall, was objected 
to by a few professional British lion tail-twisters. 



CIVIL SERVICE COMMISSION 101 

"On coming to Washington Mr. Roosevelt honored 
me with his friendship and confidence. 

"On taking up his duties in Washington, before 
either he or I had definitely settled upon homes there, 
we sat together at the same hotel table, and a some- 
what close relationship developed between us. He 
did not have calm seas and quiet sailing always ; and 
many times we met together to talk things over in 
order that they might be smoothed out somewhat. 
Mr. Roosevelt had some of the qualities of a knight- 
errant; at least he did not run away from an oppo- 
nent. Among my papers I find this card : 

July 15 — Can you dine with me at Welcker's at 7 P. M. 
to meet Batcheldor and Wharton (Assistant Secretaries, 
respectively, of the Treasury and State Departments). We'll 
drink to the health of the Tom Hendricks School of Civil 
Service Reform. 

Yours sincerely, 

Theodore Roosevelt. 

"He objected earnestly to a man who was incom- 
petent, but his whole nature revolted against one 
who had a bad character. Here is an extract from 
a letter which he wrote me from Sagamore Hill under 
date of October 18, 1889, entering a positive objec- 
tion to the appointment of one he knew to be a very 
bad man to an important office. This is the letter : 

I have another small son, which accounts for my pres- 
ence here. I heard there was some talk of nominating a 

man named as U. S. Marshal (in a Western 

State or Territory). If so, I beg that he will not be nomi- 
nated until I can be heard. He is a thorough scamp, con- 
nected with cattle-thieves, ballot-box stuffers, and the like. 
He used always to claim to be a Democrat. I know him 
well, for I had him knocked out of his place as cattle in- 
spector on account of his rascality. 

Yours sincerely, 

Theodore Roosevelt. 



102 THEODOKE ROOSEVELT 

"There is no uncertain sound in that note. The 
trumpet so often heard in later years was even then 
in good tune. 

"There is a deep strain of humor in this letter 
which I got from him dated January 3rd, 1890 : 

I enclose a piece by Governor Thompson (his colleague 
on the Commission) in one of the recent Centuries. . . . We 
always mean to stand up for the men who stand up for 
the reform. As for those who make public war on it, why, 
they must expect to have the public attacks publicly repelled. 
Your friend, the Quaker, 

T. H. 

**He suggests in the letter that, like the Quakers, 
he is such a pacifist that nobody would expect him 
to fight. 

"We had many conferences over the troubles he 
encountered as Commissioner, and I helped to keep 
things straight between him and the President, who 
was besieged with complaints from the antis in Re- 
publican ranks, who were neither few nor feeble folk, 
Mr. Roosevelt was an alert and aggressive knight, 
with lance always ready for a thrust against any op- 
ponent. The President was usually at poise, espe- 
cially in the face of opposition. When Harrison was 
chairman of the Carnegie Hall Missionary Confer- 
ence he introduced Governor Roosevelt as one who 
seemed at times 'somewhat impatient for righteous- 
ness'; and referred, jocularly, to the days when he 
(Harrison) had been, in a degree, responsible for him. 

"A very prominent Republican Congressman was 
in my room one day after he had made a bitter attack 
in the House upon Civil Service reform, repeating 
many of the cheap current charges and criticisms 
upon the work of the Commission, and particularly 
singling out Mr. Roosevelt for sarcastic comment- 



CIVIL SERVICE COMMISSION 103 

While he was talking with me the Commissioner came 
in. They did not speak to each other, and I was 
tactless enough to introduce them; when almost im- 
mediately the fireworks began, and in a minute or 
two the lie passed. I got between the two, and the 
Congressman at once left the room. Mr. Roosevelt 
apologized to me, and said he realized that any man 
who struck another in the President's house could not 
remain his appointee, and he had determined if blows 
were exchanged at once to write out his resignation. 

"The sequel to this story, as related, is that some 
years afterward, in the same room. President McKin- 
ley and the Congressman were having a friendly chat. 
Mr. Roosevelt entered and, seeing who was present, 
sat down in a corner chair, awaiting his departure. 
The Congressman, without apparent change in man- 
ner, but in a voice distinctly heard, said : ' McKinley, 
you remember a fellow named Roosevelt, who was 
Harrison's Civil Service Commissioner. He was the 
most impracticable man ever. I notice you have, as 
Assistant Secretary of the Navy, a person with the 
same name, but it can't be the same man, for your 
man is about the most efficient officer I have ever 
known.' Mr. Roosevelt sprang to his feet, walked 
across the room, extending his hand to his old-time 
enemy, saying, ' Put it there ; it 's all right, hereafter. ' 
They shook hands heartily, and from that day re- 
mained the best of friends. It was Roosevelt 's way. ' ' 

Mr. Roosevelt remained at the head of that Civil 
Service Commission from 1889 to 1895. During that 
time he increased the offices subject to Civil Service 
examination from 14,000 to 40,000, and served his 
country so magnificently in those brave, strenuous 
years that, had he never done anything else, he would 
have earned the lasting gratitude of his countrymen. 




© rii(UTVvoo.l \ rn.Krwo..(i, N. Y. 



PRESIDKNT THF.ODORE ROOSEVELT LEAVING STAND AlTKli HIS 
INAUGURATION ADDPFSS 



POLICE COMMISSIONER OF NEW YORK 



CHAPTER VII • 
POLICE COMMISSIONER OF NEW YORK 

ONE of the spasms of reform in New York City 
politics which overturned Tammany Hall was 
the one in 1895, in which William L. Strong, 
a merchant, was elected Mayor on the issue of a busi- 
ness administration. As he was elected on a reform 
ticket he concluded he would bring a reformer into 
his administration, and hearing of a certain Theodore 
Roosevelt, who had been making such a racket at 
Washington as Civil Service Commissioner, concluded 
that he would offer him the head of the Street Clean- 
ing Department. This proposition did not appeal to 
Mr. Roosevelt, and he declined it. He wanted a heav- 
ier job to tackle than cleaning streets. Hence Mayor 
Strong appointed him President of his Police Com- 
mission, never dreaming that he was getting such 
a buzz-saw on his hands as he did in the intense, 
irresistible, persistent, fearless fighter and real re- 
former, Theodore Roosevelt. 

One of the first things the new Commissioner did 
was to stun the Mayor as much as the friends and 
enemies of law and decency by giving an order that 
on the next Sunday all saloons were to be closed, and 

107 



108 THEODORE EOOSEVELT 

that if the proprietors did not close them they would 
be arrested by the police and prosecuted for an in- 
fraction of the State law. As pastor of the Park 
Avenue Methodist Church, New York City, I preached 
a sermon on that Sunday morning, asking the people 
of our church and Methodists generally, and the min- 
isters and members of all denominations, Protestant, 
Catholic and Hebrew, and the citizens who were mem- 
bers of no church but loved law and order, to stand 
behind Mr, Roosevelt in his effort to compel the law- 
defying and crime-breeding saloons to close on Sun- 
day. Sure enough, some of the liquor dealers who 
had always been stronger than the law and authori- 
ties considered the threat a joke and kept open. And, 
of course, the Commissioner, strong in intellect and 
of determined will, was in dead earnest and not jok- 
ing, and put six thousand policemen on the job of 
detecting and arresting these lawbreakers. He scared 
the brewers, distillers and saloon-keepers, till they 
fairly shivered and their teeth chattered. 

On the Monday morning following I went down to 
the police headquarters to see Commissioner Roose- 
velt. I said to him, "Mr. Roosevelt, you do not know 
me ; I never met you ; I saw you once. It was at the 
National Republican Convention in Chicago which 
named James G. Blaine for the Presidency and John 
A. Logan for the vice-presidency. You were in the 
New York delegation, in the group with George Wil- 
liam Curtis, who was working for the nomination of 
Senator Edmunds for the presidency. You had on a 
little straw hat and were not so fleshy as you are now. 
You were young and had not been long out of Har- 
vard, but you were one of the notables of the conven- 
tion and you were pointed out to me as such. I did 
not speak to you, nor have I seen you since that day. 



POLICE COMMISSIONER 109 

I have come down this morning to introduce myself 
to you, and to congratulate you on your courage in 
determining to close the Sunday saloons. The city 
has waited for twenty-five years for the coming of 
such a man. It ought not to be counted a heroic thing 
for a man to keep his oath solemnly made and to earn 
his salary by the discharge of his official duty, but 
the moral sense of the community is so low through 
the polluting influence of the liquor dealers, and their 
collusion with corrupt officials, that a man is counted 
a hero who dares keep his oath to enforce the law 
or earn his salary by so doing. I will stand by you 
till the last hour in the day; you are in a fight for 
the people and for God, and I belong in it and am 
proud to have such a leader. Our church will stand 
by you, too. In my sermon yesterday morning I asked 
all good people to sustain you in this crusade." 

The Commissioner said: "I saw what you said in 
your pulpit in the report of this morning's papers, 
and thank you very much. ' ' 

* * I am only one, ' ' I continued, ' ' and an humble one 
at that, but you may count on me to stand with you 
on the front of the firing line. Whenever you shoot 
your big gun down here in Mulberry Street, just listen 
and you will hear its echo in the crack of a little fine- 
bored pistol on the corner of Park Avenue and 
Eighty-sixth Street, and that pistol will be in my 
hand and I will be shooting at the thing at which you 
aim." 

He said enthusiastically: ''You're the stuff! I am 
looking for you as much as you are looking for me"; 
and, taking my hand warmly, he added, "I will stand 
with you in the fight till the end." Then he con- 
tinued: "Do you know that you are the first man 
whose opinion I count of any value who has com- 



110 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

mended my action ? Do you see those letters and tele- 
grams on that table? There are perhaps fifty of them. 
Every single one criticises me; some abuse me bit- 
terly. These are some of the quotations from them: 
'What an ass you are'; 'You are the biggest crank 
and fool in the world ' ; ' You have wrecked the Repub- 
lican party'; 'You have killed yourself politically, 
you will never be heard from again'; You are the 
deadest political duck that ever died in a pond.' " 

"Commissioner Roosevelt," I answered, "I do not 
believe a word of them. For every enemy you make 
you will gain ten friends. In the long run, the most 
popular thing a man can do politically is to do the 
right thing morally. You are not dead, but have just 
begun to live politically." 

He answered with considerable feeling : " I have en- 
tered this fight with no idea of making friends or 
fearing enemies ; that has nothing t-o do with the ques- 
tion. It is simply a question of duty. That law is 
on the statute books and I have taken an oath to 
enforce it with the rest," and looking up, he contin- 
ued, "With the help of God, I intend to do so. 
Whether my course will bring friends or foes, promo- 
tion or relegation to the rear, does not enter an in- 
stant into my calculation. It is mine only to do 
present duty which is plain to me. ' ' 

On taking his hand to leave, I said, "In your vision 
of righteousness and moral courage in pursuing it 
you are the stuff of which I think a good President 
could be made. I should like to vote for you for that 
office some day. ' ' And I did. 

There was a memorable scene at the beginning of 
the fight, when the frenzied brewers, distillers, saloon- 
keepers and their hired representatives appeared at a 
hearing they had called before Mayor Strong, and 



POLICE COMMISSIONER 111 

how bitterly they denounced Mr. Roosevelt, and how 
insolently they demanded a change in his policy or 
his removal. They said it was a cosmopolitan com- 
munity, that the Sunday closing feature of the law 
had never been observed, and they insisted that the 
Mayor require the Commissioner instantly to stop his 
insane policy and give a ** liberal" enforcement of 
the excise law. 

When the liquor men had finished their say the 
Commissioner made his reply. He said: "Your 
Honor, these gentlemen have savagely attacked me 
and my policy of Sunday closing, and they have de- 
manded of you that you require me to give a 'lib- 
eral' enforcement of the excise law." With ve- 
hemence and biting sarcasm, he continued: "These 
men want me to enforce the law a 'little bit,' to 
enforce it a little, tiny bit. Your Honor, I do not 
know how to do such a thing and I shall not begin 
to learn now. I did not take an oath to enforce the 
law a tiny bit. The great Empire State did not put 
that law on the statute books to be enforced a tiny bit, 
and so long as I am at the head of the Police De- 
partment of the city I shall do all in my power to 
enforce the law honestly and fearlessly." The terri- 
ble assault of the liquor dealers and others of great 
influence scared Mayor Strong almost out of his wits, 
and the Commissioner had to brace up the Mayor's 
backbone with one hand while he hammered the 
saloons with the other. 

The bitter opposition to the closing of the saloons 
by Commissioner Roosevelt and the intense hatred of 
the liquor men engendered by it, reached its climax 
in the threats of assassination, which were many and 
serious. My barber said to me when he wiped the pow- 
der off my face and let me go from the chair, * * I want 



112 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

to see you a moment if you can spare it, not out here 
where people can hear me, but in the back room where 
we can be to ourselves." I went with him and in a 
voice barely above a whisper and with a face such as 
one would wear at a funeral, he said, "I want to 
warn you of the danger you are in. You have been 
working with Mr. Roosevelt in closing the saloons on 
Sunday, It is the intention of the liquor people to 
kill him and to kill you. I hear the conversations 
that go on in my shop and I am told privately that 
this is not simply rumor, but that it is the settled 
determination to assassinate him and you." I re- 
plied, "I intend to stay in this fight with Roosevelt 
at any risk. ' ' 

The next time I saw the new Police Commissioner 
I told of the warning from the barber, and he said, 
"Doctor, I get stacks of those threats every day. 
They put an infernal machine in my office the other 
day wound up to kill me; the boys discovered it in 
time and saved me. But I am not afraid of one of 
them singly or all of them together. There are gun- 
men in this city that would kill me and kill you for 
$100, and there are many that would put up the 
money, but bad men are miserable cowards, I am not 
afraid of one of them, and I will go down on the East 
Side as often as I please and as late at night as I care 
to, and I will be hunting them while they are hunting 
me, and I tell you, my friend, if I succeed in this 
task, my life and your life and the lives of our citi- 
zens will be far more secure and New York will be a 
safer and better city," He continued, "Doctor, life 
is a tragedy ; there is a risk at every step of the way, 
and duty too, I shall do duty and leave the risk to 
God. It is only the weakling and the coward that 
halts at danger ; it is the true man who scorns it and 



POLICE COMMISSIONER 113 

does what is right. These threats are only a challenge 
to greater courage and a more strenuous fight." 

It is a strange coincidence that the man that shot 
him while he was making a speech was an ex-saloon- 
keeper from New York City. 

I noticed the singular politeness as well as dignity 
of a policeman at Fifth Avenue, at a shopping street. 
''Would you like to be promoted?" I said one day. 
He answered, ' ' There isn 't a ghost of a chance of my 
being promoted. I am a poor man and have no money 
to buy any promotion or any pull of any kind. I 
guess I will have to stick on this job." "I under- 
stand that under the Roosevelt administration money 
is not needed for promotion, and that the offer of it 
would be a reason for putting a man to the rear," I 
said to him, "I happen to be a friend of Commis- 
sioner Roosevelt, and if you would like to change your 
beat I will talk with the Commissioner about you. Mr. 
Roosevelt is a man who requires fitness for the task. 
You come up to our parsonage at any time you indi- 
cate and I will find out something about your individ- 
ual history. ' ' He said, * ' That is very kind of you and 
I will be up to see you to-morrow." He came, and 
after finding out some facts about his family and 
personal history, I asked him, ''Did you ever do a 
brave thing ? Did you ever take any risk ? Did you 
ever make any dangerous arrest?" He said, "Yes, 
I have had several close shaves in my life. This 
one I think is the closest. I was going down the Bow- 
ery to the Police Headquarters one day and I saw 
a crook steal a watch from a man's pocket and run 
for the door of the ear. The man cried: 'That man 
has got my watch,' but I had seen the fellow take it 
before the scream came and ran after him. We both 
got off the car in full speed and he got off a few feet 



114 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

ahead of me. I ran fully a square before I could gain 
on him and when I got just where I was ready to grab 
him, he turned about suddenly, whipped out a re- 
volver and shot me in the abdomen. I felt I had got- 
ten my death shot but intended to get my man any- 
how. I caught him, slung him to the ground, took 
his revolver away from him, beat him almost into 
insensibility with the handle of it and then dragged 
him by force to Police Headquarters. I was sure the 
bullet would kill me, for I felt the blood running down 
my legs and a sense of exhaustion. When I gave my 
prisoner up, I said : " He has killed me. Now lay me 
out on this lounge and send for a doctor. When they 
examined me they found that the bullet had struck 
a button of my underwear and deflected, and that 
what I thought was blood was only perspiration run- 
ning down my limbs. I was the happiest man on 
earth when told that ball had not entered my body." 

I did not write the Commissioner nor telephone him, 
but went down on purpose to see him about the case. 
As I told the story to him I got so excited over it in 
my own heart that he interrupted me, saying: "Good, 
good, splendid! that's the kind of stuff we want in 
this department. That's the kind of a man that shall 
have a chance." Then he touched a button and 
called the clerk and said: "Have Officer So-and-So 
report to me at 10 o 'clock to-morrow morning. ' ' The 
officer reported to him, and the next time I saw him 
he was riding a nice horse and with the roundsman's 
straps on his sleeve, and when I called on the late Li 
Hung Chang at the Waldorf Astoria, during his visit 
to America, the policeman who had charge of the re- 
ception was my handsome friend with his beautiful 
officer's uniform, a lieutenant of the New York police. 

A policeman called at my parsonage one morning 



POLICE COMMISSIONER 115 

»nd said: "Commissioner Roosevelt wants to see you 
at once. It is on a matter of importance." When 
I got there he took me into his private room and said : 
"I am just informed that there is a movement on 
hand to legislate me out of office. The united city 
papers have bombarded me, the leaders of both parties 
have conspired to suppress me. They have not suc- 
ceeded in killing me, and they think their only plan 
to get rid of me will be to pass a law abolishing my 
office and, of course, me with it. I have sent for 
you hurriedly because I want to know what you think 
about the situation." I said to him: ** Commissioner, 
I do not like the situ^ion. I regard it as serious. 
In fact, I think that the knife is inconveniently 
close to your jugular." He said laughingly: **It 
looks that way to me." "You can do without the 
Commissionership," I said to him, "but the city 
cannot do without you. We will not surrender, and 
wiU not run, Commissioner. They shall not touch a 
hair of your head. Our church people are splendidly 
organized in this fight and we will make it mighty 
uncomfortable for any leader or leaders to snuff you 
out in any such fashion." I immediately went to the 
Methodist Preachers' Meeting, to which I belonged, 
and which was enthusiastically in favor of the saloon- 
closing movements, and told them the sneaking plan 
of those who were leading the saloon forces for the 
Commissioner's removal and asked them in their in- 
dividual charges to speak about it and institute an 
earnest protest against it. I then went to a number 
of other preachers' meetings and told them of the 
plot and asked them to unite vigorously in the fight 
against it, which they consented to do and did. I im- 
mediately opened communication with the Republican 
leaders at Albany and elsewhere, telling them what 



116 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

disastrous consequences politically would follow such 
a foolish and wicked course; that the good people of 
the State were with Roosevelt and would settle at the 
polls with any man or party who should attempt to 
punish him for doing his duty. The legislative plot 
to eliminate Roosevelt was thus nipped in the bud. 
I wrote a lengthy article for The North American 
Review appealing to the conscience and loyalty of all 
lovers of law and order to stand with Mr. Roosevelt in 
the fight and received from him a letter which is very 
precious to me now. It is as follows : 

POLICE DEPARTMENT OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK 

300 MuLBEBBY Stbeet, New Yobk, Octobeb 23, 1895. 

My dea£ Db. Iglehabt : 

I have just been reading your admirable article in the 
North American, Review on the saloons and the Sabbath. 
Permit me to say how deeply I appreciate the valiant and 
effective fight you have waged for decent government in 
this city. 

Faithfully yours, 

Theodobe Roosevelt. 

Commissioner Roosevelt was also a member of the 
Board of Health, and with his dear friend, Jacob Riis, 
secured tenement-house reforms whose healthful, 
physical and moral influence will be felt for genera- 
tions to come. Roosevelt did more than enforce the 
Sunday law. He so organized the force and impressed 
himself on it, that it ceased to be the tool of the under- 
world and was ever after stronger. 

The Theodore Roosevelt, the man as I knew him, 
and the world knew him, stands out life-size in the 
following letter : 



POLICE COMMISSIONER 117 



Tttlr 2ad * 169&. 
ReT* Var dinand C. Iglehart, 
10< S. 66 th. 8t*t 

H • « To r k • 

Ms d«ar Blr:- 

1 thank yon for the slip you e«nt ««, and I thank 
yon atlU more cordiaUy for what you said In your aonnon. 

Ae 1 told you, it la with ma a 8lmply''que8tlon 
of o*Mrylag V oath of offloe. Nothing that either the aaXoon- 
keaper. or the polttUlan. .ay. »in *lter la any degree my po.l- 

MAD. 

Slaearely yoors, 

At the close of our two years' fight President Mc- 
Kinley appointed Mr. Roosevelt Assistant Secretary 
of the Navy. 



SPANISH- AMEEICAN WAR 



I 



CHAPTER VIII 
SPANISH-AMERICAN WAR 

JUST before leaving the police department oi 
New York, Commissioner Roosevelt sent for me 
to come to his ofSce. He greeted me with these 
words, "Doctor, I have good news to tell you. It is 
good for me, and I think you will rejoice with me 
over it. It is this : President McKinley has appointed 
me assistant secretary of the navy, and my heart is 
bounding over the fact, and it goes without saying, 
I have accepted the position. Senator Henry Cabot 
Lodge, one of the ablest and best men of this country, 
and one of the best friends I have in the world, an 
old Harvard chum, and some other influential friends, 
have secured this appointment from President Mc- 
Kinley." He said, "It looks like the Lord is on my 
side, to give me an honorable way out of this beastly 
job, thankless and perplexing to the highest degree. 
And yet I am not sorry I tackled it and gave two years 
of my life to it. I believe I have made things better. 
I have gotten good discipline for anything else that 
may follow in life." He continued, "My new job 
is exactly to my liking. From my earliest recollection 
I have been fed on tales of the sea and of ships. 
My mother's brother was an admiral in the Confed- 
erate navy, and her deep interest in the Southern 

121 



122 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

cause and her brother's calling led her to talk to me 
as a little shaver about ships, ships, ships, and fight- 
ing of ships, till they sank into the depths of my soul. 
And when I first began to think, in any independent 
and consecutive order, for record at Harvard, I began 
to write a history of the Naval War of 1812. And 
when the professor thought I ought to be on mathe- 
matics and the languages, my mind was running to 
ships that were fighting each other. ' ' 

Mr. McKinley did not want the war with Spain, 
and Mr. Long, Secretary of the Navy, was still more 
opposed to the war, but Theodore Roosevelt's far 
vision saw that Cuba was oppressed and that there 
soon would be a just cause for war with Spain. He 
set himself diligently to repair our navy, to improve 
its marksmanship and in every way to fit it for the 
sea war, which he believed would come. What he did 
in the short time he was in this office is little less 
than miraculous. In the war he saw impending, he 
felt that it would be necessary to have the ablest com- 
mander in the navy in charge of the Asiatic Squad- 
ron. He was convinced that Admiral Dewey was that 
man, and he went to work to secure his appointment 
to that position and, with the aid of the senators from 
Dewey's state and others, he succeeded in securing 
his appointment. 

On Saturday afternoon, February 25, 1898, Roose- 
velt happened to be acting Secretary of the Navy and 
sent out the following cablegram, which made his- 
tory, which made the United States a world-wide 
nation : 

Dewey — Hongkong. 

Order the squadron, except the Monocacy, to Hongkong. 
Keep full of coal. In the event of declaration of war, Spain, 
your duty will be to see that the Spanish Squadron does 



SPANISH-AMERICAN WAR 123 

not leave the Asiatic coast and then offensive operations in 
the Philippine Islands. Keep Olympia until further orders. 

KOOSEVELT. 

This policy was counted so rash by his superiors 
that it is said that he was never permitted to be acting 
Secretary of the Navy again, but the telegram had 
been sent and was not recalled. In two months from 
that time war was declared, and Dewey, all ready, 
slipped out of Hongkong and smashed the Spanish 
fleet in Manila Bay. 

The assistant secretary, with as high a type of pa- 
triotism as any man ever had, felt it to be his duty 
to go out in the field and fight with the army of his 
nation for the defense of his flag. On hearing of his 
determination, I wrote him an earnest letter in which 
I said, "You have done so much in getting the navy 
ready, you understand it so well, this is to be a naval 
war, you can serve the country better by staying in 
the navy department than in going out with the 
army." He wrote me back promptly, thanking me 
for my advice, and said, "I have done more perhaps 
than any one man in bringing on this war, and I feel 
it my duty to go out in the field if I have to leave my 
body there. The question of danger from fevers or 
bullets does not enter a moment into my calculation. 
My country is first, and it can have my services, or it 
can have me." 

He talked the whole difficult matter over with his 
old Harvard chum, Leonard Wood, and they organ- 
ized the famous Rough Riders' Regiment which, next 
to Dewey's fight, was the most spectacular feature of 
the Spanish-American War. This regiment was a 
strange combination of Westerners, cowboys and 
"bloods" from Fifth Avenue; of the rude youth of 
the plains and the cultured graduate of Harvard—^ 



124 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

but all bound to Theodore Roosevelt as their leader 
by his unspeakable magnetism and fastened to each 
other by their lofty patriotism and heroic service on 
the field. Colonel Wood was promoted and Theodore 
Roosevelt was made colonel of the regiment. The 
boys fairly worshipped him. He never called on his 
men to do a task that he would not be willing to do 
himself, or to suffer a sacrifice which he would not 
gladly endure himself. He knew every man in his 
regiment by name, and the boys say that when food 
was short he spent as high as five thousand dollars 
out of his own pocket to get something for them to 
eat. His story one day of dividing his food and his 
blanket with the boys and enduring the hardships of 
the trenches with them brought tears to my eyes- 
tears of love and pride. 

Some of his enemies in his gubernatorial campaign 
charged that he had shot a Spaniard in the back, 
which, of course, was a falsehood, although it is no 
disgrace to shoot the enemy in that part, if he shall 
turn his back to the bullets. But Reverend Bowman 
gave me the true version of the story, as Colonel 
Roosevelt told it to him. The Colonel said to him 
that in one of the battles two snipers jumped up sud- 
denly out of the high grass just in front of him and 
aimed their rifles pointblank at him. Neither of the 
shots touched him, and he, drawing his gun quickly, 
shot one of the men to death and would have gotten 
the other if he had not made his escape very rapidly. 

The stories of Colonel Roosevelt's personal heroism 
in battle are among the most priceless legacies of 
our nation. 

Theodore Roosevelt, the ranchman, the cowboy, the 
rough rider, the Governor, the great man of history, 
appears at his best in the address which he made at 



SPANISH-AMERICAN WAR 125 

a reunion o£ the Rough Riders at Las Vegas, N. M., 
in the month of June, 1899. Standing in his Rough 
Rider's suit with five thousand people enthusiastically- 
cheering him, he waved his hand for silence and said : 

Just at this time I would not have left New York State 
for any purpose save to attend the reimion of my old regi- 
ment, and for that purpose I would have gone to Alaska, 
or anywhere else, for the bond that unites us together is 
as close as any bond of human friendship can be. 

It was our good fortune to be among those accepted, when 
the country called to arms a year ago last spring, and 
when ten men volunteered for every one that could be 
chosen. I think I may say, without boasting, that the regi- 
ment did its duty in every way and with its record is a 
subject for honorable pride, not only as regards the mem- 
bers themselves, but the country at large. I am proud of 
you because you never complained and never flinched. When 
you went to war you knew you would not have an easy 
time; you expected to encounter hardships, and you took 
them without a murmur. You were all readiness to learn 
promptness and obedience, which makes it possible to turn 
the American volunteer so soon into a first-class type of 
fighting man. 

Of those who landed for the brief campaign in the tropi- 
cal midsummer against Santiago, one-fourth were killed or 
wounded, and three-fourths of the remainder were, at one 
time or another, stricken down by fever. Many died, but 
there is not one among you so poor in spirit that he does 
not count fever, wounds and death itself as nothing, com- 
pared with the honor of having been able to serve with the 
regiment under the flag of the "United States in one of the 
most righteous wars which this country has seen. 

This was a typical American regiment. The majority of 
its members came from the Southwest, but not all. We 
had in our ranks Easterners, Westerners, Northerners, 
Southerners, Catholics, Protestants, Jews, Gentiles — men 
whose parents were born in Germany or Ireland and men 
whose parents were born on the banks of the James, the 
Hudson and at Plymouth Rock nearly three centuries ago; 
and all were Americans in heart and soul, in spirit and pur- 
pose — Americans, and nothing else. We knew no distinction 



126 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

of creed, birthplace, or residence. All the creed for us was 
that a man should do his duty, and show himself alert, 
patient and enduring, good in camp and on the march, and 
valiant in battle. 

In administering this great country we must know no 
North, South, East, or West ; we must pay no heed to a 
man's creed ; we must be indifferent as to whether he is 
rich or poor, provided only he is indeed a good man, a good 
citizen, a good American. In our political and social life 
alike in order to succeed permanently, we must base our 
conduct on the Decalogue and the Golden Rule; we must 
put in practice those holy virtues, for the lack of which no 
intellectual brilliancy, no material prosperity, can ever 
atone. It is a good thing for a nation to be rich ; but it 
is a better thing for a nation to be the mother of men who 
possess the qualities of honesty, of courage and of common 
sense. 

I am proud of the way in which you have taken up the 
broken threads of your lives, in which you have gone back 
to the ranch, the mine and the counting-room. In so doing 
you show yourselves to be typical American citizens, for it 
has always been the pride of our country that an American, 
while most earnestly desirous of peace, was ever ready to 
show himself a hard and dangerous fighter if need should 
arise, and that, on the other hand, when once the need had 
passed, he could prove that war had not hurt him for the 
work of peace, and that he was all the fitter to do this work 
for having done the other too. We may be called to war 
but once in a generation, and we most earnestly hope that 
we shall not have to face war again for many years. The 
duties of peace are always with us, and these we must 
perform all our lives long, from year's end to year's end, 
if we are to prove ourselves in very fact good citizens of 
the commonwealth. We must work hard for the sake of 
those dependent upon us ; we must see that our children are 
brought up in a way that will make them worthy of the 
great inheritance which we, their fathers, have ourselves 
received from those that went before us. We must do our 
duty by the State. We must frown upon dishonesty and 
corruption, and war for honesty and righteousness. 

Let me say a word to those to whom our thoughts should 
return at such a time, to those among the living and among 
the dead, to uur absent living comrades, and especially to 



SPANISH-AMERICAN WAR 127 

our former commander, now Major-General Leonard Wood, 
whose administration of the Province of Santiago has re- 
flected the utmost credit not merely upon himself, but upon 
the nation so fortunate as to have him in her service. We 
send to them the heartiest and most loyal greetings. With 
these men we hope in no distant future to strike hands 
again, and as long as we live and they live we wish to be 
bound together by most indissoluble ties. But when we come 
to speak of our dead comrades, of the men who gave their 
lives in the fierce rush to the jungle fight, or who wasted 
to death in the fever camps, we can only stand with bared 
heads and pray that we may so live as, at the end, to die 
as worthily as these, our brothers, died. Allen Capron, in 
the sunny prime of youth, in his courage, his strength and 
his beauty ; "Bucky" O'Neill, than whom in all the army 
there breathed no more dauntless soul — of these and other 
gallant comrades, the men who carried the rifles in the 
ranks, all we can say is that they proved their truth by 
their endeavor, that in the hour of our greatest need these 
rose level to the need, and gallantly and cheerfully gave 
to their country the utmost that any man can give — their 
lives, for we read in the Holy Writ "that greater love hath 
no man than this, that he lay down his life for a friend." 

And these men so loved their country that they gallantly 
gave their lives for her honor and renown and for the 
uplifting of the human race. Now their work is over, their 
eyes are closed forever, their bodies moulder in the dust, 
but the spirit that was in them cannot die, and it shall live 
for time everlasting. 

We are a great nation. We must show ourselves great, 
not only in the ways of peace, but in the preparedness for 
war which best insures peace. We must upbuild our navy 
and army until they correspond to the new need which 
the new country will bring. Above all, my comrades and 
my fellow-countrymen, we must build up in this country 
that spirit of social and civic honesty and courage which 
alone can make this nation reach the highest and most 
lasting greatness. 



GOVERNOR OF NEW YORK 



CHAPTER IX 
GOVERNOR OF NEW YORK' 

COLONEL ROOSEVELT returned from the war 
of a few months, just before the meeting of the 
Republican State Convention in September, 
1898, and he was considered a possible candidate for 
the nomination for Governor, Taking up a New York 
paper one morning I noticed that Senator Piatt had 
stated that Colonel Roosevelt would not be nominated, 
but that Governor Black would be renominated for 
a second term. Senator Piatt was the "easy boss," 
and I knew that unless there was a change in the sit- 
uation the Colonel would not be nominated. 

The Senator was at Manhattan Beach, at the Orien- 
tal Hotel. I went down to see him about the nom- 
ination of Colonel Roosevelt for the governorship. He 
was cold on the subject and discouraged me. 

"What are your objections to the Colonel's candi- 
dacy?" I asked. 

"Well, he is rash and impulsive," said the Senator. 

"Yes," I answered, "he is impulsive, but his im- 
pulses are good, and if you will notice, he is running 
in the right direction." 

"But he slops over," the Senator continued. 
131 



132 THEODOEE ROOSEVELT 

"Yes, he does," I replied, "because there is so much 
of him to slop. He is so large that he often fills the 
vessel to overflowing. He has an overplus of vitality 
and manhood." 

The Senator declared, * ' He made such a dismal fail- 
ure in the administration of the police commissioner- 
ship that his unwisdom and unpopularity, in the judg- 
ment of many, take him out of serious consideration 
for the nomination. He has provoked the violent 
hostility of the liquor people of the State. ' ' 

"Senator," I persisted, "I disagree with you en- 
tirely. The moral heroism he manifested in his fight 
against the Sunday saloons of New York will be an 
asset to the Republican party. Remember, there are 
a good many people in the State who live above the 
Harlem and who have no love for, nor even patience 
with, the saloon on Sunday, or on any other day, and, 
besides, I believe the number of voters in New York 
City who are unfriendly to the saloon is often under- 
estimated. Are you not too smart a man and leader 
to attempt to compete with Tammany Hall for the 
saloon vote? The liquor dealers may promise to vote 
for your ticket, but on election day they will vote for 
Tammany Hall, which they count a friend to be relied 
upon. You can run Theodore Roosevelt and win with- 
out the saloon vote. You can win in spite of it. So 
able a man as David Bennett Hill — so great a national 
figure that, backed by his party in the State, he surely 
would have received the nomination for the presidency 
on the Democratic ticket in 1892, if Cleveland had not 
taken it from him — made the fatal political mistake 
of overestimating the saloon vote in this State, and 
was driven from power largely on account of his 
supposed friendliness to the saloon. When he ran for 
the governorship in 1894 it was reported that he 



GOVERNOR OF NEW YORK 133 

said he would rather have the votes of the saloon- 
keepers than of the preachers. 

' * Whether he ever made the statement or not, it was 
so generally believed that the preachers took him at 
his word and fought him, and the church people of 
both parties turned against him and beat him by 
more than 100,000 votes. On account of that mistake 
you are in Mr. Hill's place in the United States Sen- 
ate and have displaced him as the dominant political 
figure of the State. If you make the mistake he did 
and punish Roosevelt for having fought the Sunday 
saloons, it will so anger the church people that they 
will bury your ticket under an avalanche of 150,000 
votes. You will step down and out, and Mr. Hill 
will return to the political leadership of the State. 

' ' There are many people who are not total abstainers 
who count the saloon a bad institution and will knock 
it at the polls, and many more who resent the im- 
pertinence and impiety of the Sunday saloon and will 
work actively against your ticket. Senator, I have 
always voted a straight Republican ticket; but if 
you depose Colonel Roosevelt for having done his 
sworn duty as police commissioner I will bolt the 
ticket this fall, and you will find my ballot in that 
avalanche of votes. I never made a political speech 
in my life, and yet if you turn down Roosevelt, be- 
cause you fear the saloon power will beat him, I will 
take the stump and make a score, or if need be fifty, 
speeches from here to Buffalo between now and elec- 
tion day and tell the people how it happened, and ask 
them what they think of it. There is especial reason 
for caution this fall. You will be handicapped by 
the fact that this is an 'off' year, not a presidential 
one, and by the severe criticism on the Republican 
party for its administration of the canals of the State ; 



134 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

and you will need Roosevelt's physical, mental and 
moral enthusiasm to pull your ticket through," 

The Senator said, "Another strong reason why I 
object to Roosevelt's nomination is that he is such 
an independent I fear he might go back on the Re- 
publican party, if he were to be elected Governor, and 
fight those of us who put him in office, just like that 
fool of a Strong, whom we Republicans elected Mayor 
of New York and who had scarcely taken his seat be- 
fore he turned against us, who had elected him, and 
gave the city back into the hands of Tammany Hall 
at the next election." "Senator," I said, "I think 
your fears are unfounded. While I am sure he would 
not stand for any wrongdoing in his party, I consider 
him a sound Republican and feel that you could rely 
on him as such." Senator Piatt, who was a very keen 
man, and one of the best judges of human nature I 
ever saw, sensed the conflict which indeed did come 
between him and the Colonel over the policies and 
leadership of the Republican party of the State. 

It had gotten to be 5:30 o'clock in the afternoon. 
Who should get off the train I was to take for home 
but B. B. Odell, Jr., chairman of the Republican State 
Committee; Joseph Dickey, Mr, Bain, and others of 
Newburgh, my personal friends. Mr. Odell said: 
"Hello, what are you doing down here?" 

"I came down to see Senator Piatt," I replied, "to 
try to persuade him to nominate Colonel Roosevelt 
for the Governorship. The paper this morning re- 
ported that he had told you boys last night that the 
Colonel would not be nominated." 

Mr. Odell said, "I am glad you came down. I am 
for Roosevelt myself and so are my friends here. I 
think he is the logical candidate as a war hero and 
reformer, and would poll a heavy vote and be elected. 



GOVERNOR OF NEW YORK 135 

The Senator has faith in your judgment, thinks that 
you reflect the moral sentiment of the State pretty 
accurately; I wish you would stay down and have 
another interview with Mr. Piatt. Suppose you go 
back to the hotel and have dinner with me and see 
him again to-night." 

After dinner I had another talk with the Senator, 
in which I said : ' ' Senator, do not think for a moment 
that Colonel Roosevelt sent me down to see you in the 
interest of his nomination. He does not know I am 
here. I have never spoken to him on the subject. 
While I have corresponded with him ever since he was 
Police Commissioner, even since he came back to Mon- 
tauk Point to be mustered out, the matter of the 
Governorship has never been mentioned by either. I 
am here because I have seen Theodore Roosevelt at 
close range for two years and know him to be a man 
of great ability and all-daring moral courage, and 
believe that as a leader his administration would work 
for righteousness. ' * 

The Senator was so cold and keen in answering 
my arguments and unresponsive to my warm appeals, 
that I went home thoroughly discouraged. Before 
going to bed I sat down and wrote a letter to the 
Colonel at Montauk Point, in which, among other 
things, I said: "I had thought the Republican leaders 
would have had wisdom enough to offer you the nom- 
ination for the governorship, but in a morning paper 
I saw that Senator Piatt had said you would not be 
the candidate. I knew that settled the matter, if that 
opinion continued. So, without your advice or con- 
sent, I hurried down to the Oriental at Manhattan 
Beach to-day and had two long, earnest interviews 
with the Senator, in which I tried to convince him of 
the wisdom of your nomination. But he discouraged 



136 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

me, for my visit seemed to have made no impression 
on him whatever. Whenever I would come around 
to the plea that he be friendly to your nomination, a 
sphinx would have been eloquent compared to the 
sudden silence of his lips. Unless he shall change his 
mind I fear your nomination will be impossible. ' ' 

The Colonel was nominated. After the Convention, 
one of the men with whom I went back to the hotel 
for dinner, the day of the interviews, told me that, 
when I left that night, the Senator called the group 
of State leaders, who were stopping at the hotel. He 
said that he told them the night before that Governor 
Black would have to be renominated or there would 
be a split in the Republican party, but Doctor Igle- 
hart had been down to see him and had given him 
four reasons why Colonel Roosevelt should be nom- 
inated, three of which he considered valid. On the 
strength of them he had concluded to reverse his opin- 
ion and favor Mr. Roosevelt's nomination. The gen- 
tlemen said that from that moment Roosevelt was as 
good as nominated. Senator Piatt afterward told me 
that it was my visit to Manhattan Beach and the 
arguments I urged which changed his mind. Colonel 
Roosevelt told me that it was my visit to the Senator 
that afternoon that had much to do in putting him 
on the ticket, and after his nomination he sent me the 
following letter: 

Oyster Bay, L. I., Octobeb 3, 1898. 
Dr. Ferdinand Iglehart, 
245 Liberty Street, 
Newburgh, N. Y. 
My dear Dr. Iglehart: 

Nobody has a better right to be pleased than yourself. Be 
sure I appreciate what you have done. 

With warm regards, I am, 

Faithfully yours, 

Theodore Roosevelt. 




ROOSEVELT ON BOARD U. S. 



T'lKk-rwoi..! & UndeiNv 1, X. Y. 

S. ALGONQUIN, CHARLESTON, S. C. 



GOVEENOR OF NEW YORK 137 

Just after his election as Governor he sent me a 
beautiful telegram of greeting and appreciation which 
money cannot buy. 

Chairman Odell worked ably, loyally and success- 
fully in the campaign for Colonel Roosevelt, and he 
was elected by a majority of 17,786 votes. 

Governor Roosevelt entered upon his great office 
with vigor and enthusiasm, making every question and 
department tingle at his touch; a reformer by birth 
and by years of education, he found evils in the 
State which he felt demanded immediate attention. 
Grounded in his notions of Civil Service Reform, he 
insisted upon the re-enactment of a Civil Service Law 
which had been declared unconstitutional by the court 
and made the law stronger than the original one was. 

He had been down in the slum district of New York 
when he was a young man just entering politics; he 
had been down into this submerged region while 
Police Commissioner and as a member of the Board of 
Health he saw the suffering and ill-health of the 
poor on account of the cramped quarters, bad air and 
want of sunlight and pure water, and he secured the 
passage of the Tenement House Reform Law with a 
Tenement House Commission to see that it was prop- 
erly enforced. He felt that there were abuses in the 
insurance department which needed correcting and 
that Lou Payne, a "dyed-in-the-wool" friend of Sen- 
ator Piatt, was a barrier to the reform, and at the 
risk of irritation and criticism he removed Mr, Payne 
and brought a healthful change in the Insurance De- 
partment. 

With a heart always going out after the poor, and 
with a desire to help those of them who were not 
given a fair chance, the Governor set himself in ear- 
nest to imijrove the condition of the laboring class of 



138 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

the State. He secured an eight-hour law; strict fac- 
tory laws, including the employers' liability, the pro- 
tection of women and children in the industrial world ; 
a cure for the worst evils of the sweatshop, and other 
helpful measures. He secured the building of a State 
hospital for the cure of consumptives in the first stage 
of this disease. 

Perhaps the most conspicuous and far-reaching 
measure, which he pressed under tremendous opposi- 
tion, was the Corporation Franchise Tax Law. He 
insisted that these mammoth corporations, which re- 
ceived such a generous franchise, should be made to 
pay their full share of the burden of the State. Some 
of the foremost Republicans of the State took issue 
with him on this subject and fought the measure bit- 
terly. In answer to them he said, "It seems to me 
that our attitude should be one of correcting the evils 
and thereby showing that, whereas the Populists and 
Socialists, and others, do not really correct the evils 
at all, or else only do so at the expense of producing 
others in aggravated form; on the contrary, we Re- 
publicans hold a just balance and set ourselves as reso- 
lutely against improper corporate iufluence on the 
one hand as against demagogy and mob nile on the 
other. ' ' 

The friends of moral reform in New York had in- 
troduced a bill against professional boxing with a fee 
at the door. I had remembered how, as a sickly boy, 
those of his size had licked and bullied Theodore and 
how his father had engaged a trainer to instruct him 
in boxing, and how much physical benefit and courage 
he derived and how much genuine joy he got out of 
that severe form of athletics. And hence I knew that 
the bill for innocent boxing, in itself, would not be 
objectionable to him, but I knew also that he had a 



GOVERNOR OF NEW YORK 139 

keen conscience that scented moral danger and that 
he would not allow any bill to go through which had 
anything wrong about it. The telegrams from the 
Capitol in the city papers reported that the anti-prize- 
fighting bill had been halted and that it was going to 
be defeated, that Governor Roosevelt, who was con- 
stitutionally friendly to boxing, was not going to 
press it and was going to permit it to be defeated. 
Two or three papers had editorials commending such 
a course on his part. I was considerably excited when 
I entered the Governor 's chamber after a hurried trip 
to Albany, and it may have been with a little feeling 
that I told him what I had seen in the papers and 
reminded him of the promise he made us that the 
bill should go through. "There is no man on earth 
whose word I would rather trust than yours, ' ' I said, 
"or on whose conscience I would rather rely on a 
question of public morals, and I know that you are 
misrepresented in the papers and editorials. I have 
come up to Albany more than anything else to ask 
you to give this bill the boost that will send it over 
the top." 

He got much more excited than I was myself and 
said, * * I am astonished that you should take those false 
telegrams, those lying editorials, and be disturbed 
about them, when I told you that, friendly as I was 
to boxing as an athletic exercise, I was totally op- 
posed to the vices and demoralizing herds that cluster 
about and feed upon it, and that I would fight to the 
death any hint of professional gambling that might 
be associated with it," and then, referring to one 
paper and the editorial in it, he said, "This paper 
and its editorials always misunderstand and misrep- 
resent me, and you wave the red rag before the bull 
in referring to them." He continued: "You know 



140 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

full well that on moral questions the church people 
and I are in perfect agreement. Why? I am one of 
the church people myself, and stand, work, and fight 
for the things which they represent. Our personal 
friendship is the outgrowth of our mutual support 
of the things for which the church stands." He had 
walked over to the window and lifted one foot up on 
the sill, and he put around me an arm which had the 
strength of a grizzly bear's paw and the tenderness 
of a woman pressing her babe to her heart, as he 
said, * ' I am not angry at you. I appreciate your feel- 
ing and your interest in the good morals of the State, 
and I am as anxious about them as you, but it does 
make me fighting mad to be lied about this way and 
made to appear on the wrong side of this moral ques- 
tion." 

While Governor Roosevelt was pushing this con- 
structive legislation he was endearing himself to the 
people, irrespective of party, and with his positive 
genius for politics was taking a very strong grip on 
the leadership of his own party in the State. His 
broad-minded, statesmanlike reform administration as 
Governor brought wider attention and regard for him 
in the country at large and made him a presidential 
possibility. 



THE CITIZEN AND PUBLIC MAN 



CHAPTER X 
THE CITIZEN AND THE PUBLIC MAN 

WHILE I was pastor at the Trinity Methodist 
Church at Newburgh, N. Y., I asked Gover- 
nor Roosevelt if he would come and give us 
a lecture in our church. He said he had so many calls 
for public service that he could not accept one out of a 
hundred, and that if he were to accept such a request 
as I was making of him he could speak three times a 
day every day in the year. But he said : ' ' As you and 
I are such special friends I will make an exception in 
your case and come to you. Occasionally I make a 
special exception, but it is exceedingly rare." We 
had the church crowded with an audience that num- 
bered a thousand. In introducing him I said: "We 
are honored to-night with the presence and service of 
Governor Roosevelt; he is a brave soldier, a wise 
statesman, a fearless reformer, a manly man, the ideal 
American and a Christian gentleman. He has phos- 
phorus in his brains, iron in his blood, lime in his 
bones and back-bone enough for one hundred men." 
Just then I heard the Governor laugh aloud and I 
turned my face towards him and as his eye both 
twinkled and snapped he said: "I am likely to have 
need of all that back-bone before I get through with 
my job." 

143 



144 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

Governor Roosevelt then delivered his speech on 
The Citizen and the Public Man 

His address was as follows : 

Good citizenship does not necessarily imply genius. Genius 
has.been defined as an infinite capacity for taking pains, and 
good citizenship consists in the practice of ordinary, hum- 
drum, common virtues, which we all take for granted, and 
which, in practice, sad to say, all of us do not carry out. 

Jefferson said that the whole art of government consists 
in being honest. That is not the whole art, but it is the 
foundation of all government. The foundation is not 
enough ; but, if you do not have that, you cannot erect upon 
it any superstructure that is worth building. You must 
have honesty as the first requisite of good citizenship. We 
have too much of a tendency in this country to deify mere 
smartness, mere intellectual acumen, unaccompanied by 
morality. There is no attitude that speaks worse for a com- 
monwealth than this of admiring, or failing to condemn, the 
man who is unconscientious, unscrupulous, and immoral, but 
who succeeds. If a man has not the root of honesty in him 
— has not, at the foundation of his character, righteousness 
and decency — then, the abler and the braver he is, the more 
dangerous he is. It is an additional shame to a man that 
he should be evil, when he has in him the power to do 
much good. 

In all our history, who is the man first thought of when 
Americans wish to name the arch type of evil? Benedict 
Arnold, the traitor, who had not the root of honesty in 
him. And yet he was one of the most brilliant soldiers that 
ever wore the American uniform. Had he ended as he be- 
gan, he would have been an example to all Americans. How 
would our nation look if we failed to condemn Arnold as 
his crime deserved? — if we said: "Arnold, a traitor? Oh, 
yes, but then he was a dreadfully smart man." There is no 
danger of anybody else becoming an Arnold. He is con- 
demned, and nobody desires to follow in his footsteps. But 
there is a danger to us, as a nation, in the career of the 
Benedict Arnolds of the political and financial worlds; of 
the men who prosper in business or in politics by wrong- 
doing, and who find weak-minded apologists, who say for 
them : "Oh, well ! maybe he has been a little tricky, but he 
has succeeded." Shame to any man who permits his ad- 



I 



THE CITIZEN 145 

miration for success to lead him into condoning crime when 
that crime has led to success ! Shame to those men who 
permit admiration for wealth and political position to make 
them condone the evil-doing through which wealth or posi- 
tion was attained. We are in no danger from the Bene- 
dict Arnolds; that danger is past; but a hundred others 
remain. We are in danger from the man who tries to rise 
to political prominence as a demagogue by inflaming class 
against class, or section against section. We are in danger 
from the man who tries to rise to political power by truck- 
ling either to the wealthy man who seeks to take corrupt 
advantage of his wealth, or to the man without wealth who 
is moved by malice, envy, and hatred, to conspire against 
the man who is thriftier or more progressive than he. It is 
necessary to condemn the two types alike. We are in danger 
from the men who rise in business through swindling, 
whether on a big or small scale, and the reason we are in 
danger is because public opinion is not awake enough — en- 
lightened enough — to make the crushing weight of its con- 
demnation felt against the men who prosper in these ways. 

After honesty as the foundation of the citizenship that 
counts, in business or in politics, must come courage. You 
must have courage not only in battle, but also in civic 
life. We need physical and we need moral courage. Neither 
is enough by itself. You need moral courage. Many a man 
has been brave physically who has flinched morally. You 
must feel in you a very fiery wrath against evil. When 
you see a wrong, instead of feeling shocked and hurt and a 
desire to go home, and a wish that right prevailed, you 
should go out and fight until that wrong is overcome. You 
must feel ashamed if you do not stand up for the right as 
you see it; ashamed if you lead a soft and easy life and 
fail to do your duty. You must have courage. If you do 
not, the honesty is of no avail. 

But honesty and courage, while indispensable, are not 
enough for good citizenship. I do not care how brave and 
honest a man is; if he is a fool, he is not worth knocking 
on the head. In addition to courage and honesty, you must 
have the saving quality of common sense. One hundred and 
ten years ago France started to form a republic, and one 
of her noted men — an exceedingly brilliant man, a scholar 
of exceptional thought, the Abbe Sieyes — undertook to draw 
up a constitution. He drew up several constitutions, beauti- 



146 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

ful documents; but they would not work. The French na- 
tional convention resolved in favor of liberty ; and, in 
the name of liberty, they beheaded every man who did 
not think as they did. They resolved in favor of fraternity, 
and beheaded those who objected to such a, brotherhood. 
They resolved in favor of equality, and cut off the heads of 
those who rose above the general level. They indulged in 
such hideous butcheries, in the name of liberty, equality, 
and fraternity, as to make tyranny seem mild in comparison 
— and all because they lacked common sense as well as 
morality. 

Two or three years before that, we, in America, had a 
body of men gathered in a constitutional convention to make 
a constitution. They assembled under the lead of Wash- 
ington, with Alexander Hamilton, Madison, and many other 
prominent men. They did not draw up a constitution in a 
week, as the brilliant Sieyes did, but just one constitution, 
and that one worked. That was the great point! 

It worked, primarily, because it was drawn up by practi- 
cal politicians — by practical politicians who believed in de- 
cency, as well as in common sense. If they had been a set 
of excellent theorists, they would have drawn up a consti- 
tution which would have commended itself to other excel- 
lent theorists, but which would not have worked. If they 
had been base, corrupt men, mere opportunists, men who 
lacked elevating ideals, dishonest, cowardly, they would not 
have drawn up a document that would have worked at all. 
On the great scale the only practical politics is honest 
politics. The makers of our constitution were practical poli- 
ticians, who were also sincere reformers, and as brave and 
upright as they were sensible. 

Take Washington, for example. He was not a mere the^ 
orist — not a bit of it. He had served, before the war broke 
out, in the Virginia Legislature, again and again. There he 
acquired the experience that every man must have in a 
Legislature, if he tries to accomplish anything. He found, 
when he was with a lot of men actuated by different mo- 
tives, that he could not have his way altogether ; that he 
had to get the best result he could out of the materials at 
hand. Alexander Hamilton had taken a prominent part in 
the politics of New York. So had Madison, the Adamses, 
and Patrick Henry, in their commonwealths. These men 
were all men of theories ; but they were not mere theorists. 



THE CITIZEN 147 

They had worked in popular bodies, had seen what rep- 
resentative governments and legislatures could and could 
not do, what the people would and would not stand, just 
how far they could lead them, just how far they could 
drive them. They knew they could not get all they wanted, 
but they knew they could get a good deal. They were not 
fools; and, therefore, they did not insist upon the impracti- 
cable best. If they had been either fools or knaves, they 
would have done irreparable damage to the country — just 
as much if they had been one as the other. The fool and 
the knave play into each other's hands. They do not think 
they do, but they do. If the men of whom I speak had 
insisted upon the impossible, on what they could not get, 
we would not have any constitution. If they had not in- 
sisted upon the best they could get, their work would not 
have been worth doing at all. In other words, they had 
to work as Washington and Lincoln always did work. 

For instance, there were, in that constitutional conven- 
tion, men who were almost as wide-awake as we of to-day, 
on the evils of negro slavery; but they lived in a genera- 
tion when not one man in a thousand felt as they did, and 
they had to consent not merely to the recognition of human 
slavery, but to give increased representation to the slave 
states for the negro slaves they contained within their 
borders. It was indefensible from the standpoint of logic, 
and, later, the constitution was denounced as "a league with 
death and a covenant with hell," because of its containing 
such a provision. We, of our day, would be criminal, if 
we put in such a provision. But our forefathers, working 
under the actual conditions, had to accept the provision, 
or they could not have obtained the Union — this free re- 
public. They would have begun exactly such a career as 
we have seen the republics of South America follow dur- 
ing the eighty years that have elapsed since they threw off 
the yoke of Spain. 

But our leaders were not merely "practical" men, either. 
They were accustomed to the conduct of afifairs, but they 
were also men of the study, of the library, men who could 
draw on their knowledge of what had been done in other 
nations, in other ages. They not only drew from their ex- 
perience for actual government, but from their wealth of 
knowledge of past history. They did not belong to the 
narrow-minded type, which says, "Oh, I am practical," as an 



148 THEODORE EOOSEVELT 

excuse for being illiterate and base. Distrust any man who 
advances the excuse of being practical when he is convicted 
of some infamy, or is shown to have been utterly ignorant 
of history. 

To be practical, if you use the word in its proper and 
highest sense, necessarily implies that the man shall have 
a knowledge of history as well as of current practice ; above 
all else, should thoroughly understand that to be practical 
does not Imply being base. In the long run, being practical 
implies being decent ; and, if it does not imply that, then 
drop it. 

It does no good to resolve against vice in the abstract. 
All the good comes from acting, in the concrete, in a way 
that carries out in practice the principles laid down in the 
abstract. There should be an eleventh commandment : 
"Thou Shalt tell the truth, and thou shalt tell it just as 
much on the stump as in the pulpit." Do not fail to per- 
form whatever you have promised. On the other hand, do 
not, through weakness, folly, or wickedness, promise, or 
ask to have promised, what you know cannot be performed. 
When a man runs for office, if you ask him to promise what 
you know cannot be done, you are asking him to lie. You 
are taking a position that is infamous for yourself, be- 
cause you are asking him to take an infamous position. On 
the other hand, if you ask him, as you have a right to ask 
him, to do what can be performed, and he fails to redeem 
his promise, hold him to the strictest accountability. If he 
promises you the millennium, distrust him. If he tells you 
that, providing you vote for his particular patent remedy, 
he will cure all diseases of the body politic, and will see 
that everybody is happy, rich, and prosperous, not only dis- 
trust him, but also set yourselves down as fools if you 
follow him. 

We have lived one thousand and nine hundred years in 
the Christian era, and as yet we have had to make our 
progress step by step, with infinite pains and infinite labor. 
In spite of baitings and shortcomings, we have been striv- 
ing onward and upward ; and, as we have made progress 
in the past, so we shall make it in the future. You will 
not find any royal road in patent legislation, in curious 
schemes by which everybody gets virtuous and happy. Not 
a bit of it ! We are* going ahead, I trust, a little faster 
than in the past, but only a little faster. We hope to keep 



THE CITIZEN 149 

going forward, but by steps, not by bounds. We must keep 
our eyes on the stars, but we must also remember that our 
feet are on the ground. When you get a man who tries 
to make you think anything else, he is either a visionary or 
a demagogue, and in either event he is an unsafe leader. 

The citizen who does his whole duty will be careful not 
to, attribute wrongfully, dishonest or bad motives to a pub- 
lic servant. This is as reprehensible as to fail to condemn 
the actually blameworthy. In either case you tend to con- 
fuse the public conscience, to debauch the public morality, 
to make the rogue strive and prosper and drive the honest 
man from pubUc life. It is of vital consequence that our 
public servants be honest ; it is of no less vital consequence 
to the welfare of the nation that the real truth should be 
told about the dishonest and honest aUke; and woe to the 
man who offends in either respect. 

Finally, remember to stand for both the ideal and the 
practical. Remember that you must have a lofty ideal, as 
Abraham Lincoln had, and that you must try to achieve 
it in practical ways as he tried to achieve it during the four 
years that he lived and worked and suffered for the people, 
until his sad, patient, kindly soul was sent to seek its 
Master. Remember, also, that you can do your duty as citi- 
zens in this country only if you are imbued through and 
through with the spirit of brotherhood ; the spirit that we 
call Americanism. You can do no permanent good unless 
you feel, not only in theory, but also in practice, that funda- 
mentally we are knit together by close ties,— the ties of 
morality, of fellow feeling and sympathy, in its broadest 
and deepest sense. We cannot live permanently as a re- 
public; we cannot hold our own as the mightiest common- 
wealth of self-governing, free men upon which the sun has 
ever shown unless we have it ground into our souls that 
we know no class, no section; that east, west, north, and 
south, our people, whatever may be their occupations, what- 
ever their conditions in life, stand shoulder by shoulder, 
striving for honesty, for decency, for all the fundamental 
virtues and morals that make good American citizenship. 

This address was afterwards published in Dr. Marden's Success Mag- 
azine and in his "Success Library." 



THE VICE-PEESIDENCl! 



CHAPTER XI 
THE VICE-PRESIDENCY 

IT was Governor's Day at the Orange County Fair 
at Middletown, New York, that I had a memor- 
able visit with Theodore Roosevelt. How my 
bosom heaved with pride as I rode in a "royal char- 
iot " in a parade through the streets of the little city, 
behind the village band. Constituted as I am, caring 
so little for ''fuss and feathers," I felt that the whole 
performance, as far as my relation to it was con- 
cerned, was a joke, but I felt that the little parade 
was not a joke by any means, for I considered that 
the greatest man in America was at the head of the 
line, and that he would stir the farmers of the singu- 
larly rich county into the highest enthusiasm and 
helpful endeavor, and that I, myself, would be en- 
riched with his wisdom and refreshed, by his compan- 
ionship. When we got to the speaker's stand at the 
Fair, thousands upon thousands had gathered around 
and pressed close against the stand to see and hear 
the Governor. He said to me, * ' Come along here, old 
boy, and sit with me on the speakers' stand. You 
have always backed me up, and I want you to stand 
behind me to-day." 

153 



154 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

It was a great speech he made. Everything he said 
and did I thought was great. But he was intrin- 
sically great, and the people of our country and the 
world recognized that he said and did the greatest 
things possible to mortals. Their love magnified him 
almost into the superhuman. One of the things I re- 
member most distinctly about the speech was the 
humor that filled his soul so full that it ran over in 
comical facial expressions and in funny incident, 
which was one of his chief personal charms and which 
delighted his audiences. It was a country lunch we 
had on the ground, and it was great, as it should have 
been on Governor's Day and after such a speech, I 
had another heave of pride in my bosom when they 
placed me next to the Governor to eat. While he did 
his full job as a working man at that meal, he would 
take time to throw out a chunk of wisdom, now and 
then, or to start a hearty laugh. The little circle was 
charged with his magnetism. Everybody on the 
ground felt the same delightful thrill of his person- 
ality. When the lunch was over he said to me, "I 
asked you to come out to Middletown to-day because 
I have something of great importance I want to take 
up with you. I do not care to say what I desire here 
in public, nor even to this inner circle of my good 
friends, and I want you to take a walk with me so 
that I can say what I desire without anybody hearing 
me." He said, "There is a lonely place down there 
in those woods, and we will go there. ' * 

When we came to the woods he said, ' ' Sit down here 
on the ground. ' ' He said to me seriously, * * Hobart is 
going to die. He has an incurable disease and can- 
not live long, and cannot be renominated for the vice- 
presidency. The leaders, who will name the candi- 
dates to succeed him, have just been to me to offer 



THE VICE-PRESIDENCY 155 

me the place and insisted upon my taking it. I want 
to know what you think about it ; what would you do 
if you were in my place ? You and I have had cabinet 
meetings at Police Headquarters, at the Capitol at 
Albany and elsewhere, and we will have one here." 

"My answer to your question," I said, ''will de- 
pend upon how you feel about it, because your in. 
stincts are so strong and your prophetic vision is so 
keen and wide that I would rather trust your judg- 
ment than my own, and I would say, do what you 
think is the best thing to do and the thing you want 
to do most." He replied, "I am not going to tell you 
how I feel about it. I have brought you here to get 
your judgment, and when you have given me yours 
I will then tell you what I think about it." "Gover- 
nor," I said to him, "this is a matter of tremendous 
importance. I feel honored at your confidence, and 
will take this matter under serious consideration, sleep 
on it overnight and let you know in the morning." 
"No," he said, "I don't want you to take it under 
consideration and let me know to-morrow. I do not 
w^ant you to take an hour, nor five minutes, nor one 
minute, so just bang away and say what you think 
now. What I want is your first impression on the 
subject. Your intuitions are stronger than your logic 
as they are in most men. 

"Here goes," I replied. "The vice-presidency is 
a temple or a tomb; in the latter years of our re- 
public it has been a tomb; in the earlier history of 
our country it was a temple. The best man was made 
President, the next best man Vice-president, with the 
understanding that, at the expiration of the term of 
the presidency, he would be nominated as the succes- 
sor. But you are not an ordinary man. Unlike any 
other one in the country, you are so potential and so 



156 THEODOKE ROOSEVELT 

magnetic that I believe if you were made Vice-presi- 
dent the people would return to the custom of the 
fathers and nominate you for President as McKin- 
ley's successor. 

"Governor, I do not think that any rope was ever 
made strong enough to tie your legs, or buckle ever 
made strong enough to strap a muzzle over your 
mouth. You would be put, as Vice-president, to pre- 
side over the Senate, with the understanding that you 
would be a wooden man or a rubber stamp. But it 
would be found that the leaders would have to come 
to your mind for wisdom and seek your dynamic force 
to run the wheels of government successfully, and in 
a perfectly natural way we would return to the cus- 
tom of our fathers and make you McKinley's suc- 
cessor. 

''Besides, as Vice-president, you would have one 
chance out of six to be President; sixteen per cent, 
of all the Presidents of the United States have been 
so, by the death of the President and the accession 
of the Vice-president to his office. You would not 
want to become President that way? I know you so 
well, and yet you would be all the same. I was down 
to Washington the other day and saw McKinley and 
he looked so pale and haggard that he shocked me. 
His wife, you know, is an incurable invalid, and his 
intense affection for her has made her failing health 
a matter of great concern to him; and his mother, 
to whom he is so devoted, has been very sick, and 
that has borne upon him. 

** The Spanish "War racked and jaded him. A blood- 
vessel might break in the back of his head and he be 
gone in the twinkling of an eye and you would be 
his successor. Besides, some rascally anarchist might 
kill him; you would not want the Presidency under 



THE VICE-PRESIDENCY 157 

those circumstances. You would risk your own life 
to fight, and even kill, a man that would attempt to 
touch a hair of McKinley's head. Knowing your 
ideas of heroism, you would count it a trial to take the 
chief office under those circumstances, and yet you 
would have to do it. Remember, Governor, if you ac- 
cept this nomination for the Vice-presidency, you have 
one chance in six to be President. 

' ' On the other hand, though fit for anything in the 
nation, you are not around begging for a job. You 
have an office of great honor and responsibility and 
opportunity as Governor of the Empire State. You 
are the ruler of twelve millions of people, more than 
a number of ambitious sovereigns in Europe have as 
subjects. You have an unlimited field of usefulness 
in the Governorship, and I know that in your heart 
of hearts you live to do duty and not seek position 
or fame. While I believe the chances would be even 
if you were nominated for the Vice-presidency that 
you would reach the Presidency, I believe if I were 
in your place I would stay in my present office and 
decline the nomination offered. I believe the distance 
between Albany and the White House is shorter than 
that between the Capitol, with its Senate chamber, 
and the White House ; that the path from the Gover- 
norship to the Presidency is shorter and easier than 
from the Vice-presidency." 

He said excitedly, "Right you are," and, jumping 
up, he gave me a hard slap on the shoulder and said, 
"Exactly right you are. I agree with you. I intend 
to stay where I am. I will not touch the Vice-presi- 
dency with a ten-foot pole. It is not my business to 
hunt for the Presidency, but to do my duty to my 
State and country as it is made plain to me. If the 
people of this country ever desire to elect me as head 



158 THEODOKE ROOSEVELT 

of the nation, of course I will feel honored and ac- 
cept the position, but I shall not now entertain any 
plans of working my way toward such an exalted of- 
fice by any political schemes." 

That was in the fall of 1899. Governor Roosevelt 
persistently declared his desire for another term as 
Governor and that, despite any factional opposition to 
him, he would secure the nomination and succeed him- 
self. In the following summer, in 1900, the National 
Convention met in Philadelphia to nominate a Presi- 
dent and Vice-president. Governor Roosevelt was one 
of the delegates at large to that Convention. It was 
the first Republican National Convention which he 
had attended as a delegate for sixteen years. Then 
he went out from the Convention in Chicago that 
nominated Blaine into political retirement. Now he 
flamed upon the imagination of the Philadelphia Con- 
vention as a reformer, the illustrious Colonel of the 
Rough Riders, the wise and loved Governor of the 
Empire State, and the Convention went wild with en- 
thusiasm every time he appeared. He made a speech 
nominating McKinley for the Presidency. The dele- 
gates by acclamation clamored for his nomination for 
the Vice-presidency. He declined, honestly declined, 
but the more he protested the more insistent the Con- 
vention became. At last he consented to the second 
place on the ticket with McKinley at the head, and 
entered upon a vigorous and efficient campaign for 
the election of the ticket. 

The day after he came home from the Convention 
in Philadelphia, that nominated him on the ticket 
with McKinley, he saw me crossing Broadway and 
23rd Street and, throwing up his hand, he beckoned 
to me to come over to him. It was not necessary for 
him to beckon me, for I was already hurrying toward 



THE VICE-PRESIDENCY 159 

him. As I came within about twenty feet of him, he 
yelled out in a voice that could have been heard a 
quarter of a block away, ' ' I had to take it, old man ! 
I had to take it ! Just listen to me a minute and I 
will tell you the story of the Convention. It was 
really a Roosevelt Convention; everything was cut 
and dried for McKinley's nomination, everybody ex- 
pected it and desired it, but there was no enthusiasm 
about it. All the enthusiasm of the Convention 
seemed to center around me. In season and out of 
season the boys cheered me. I protested against the 
nomination, sincerely and vehemently, and when they 
paid no attention to my protest and nominated me, I 
repeatedly refused to accept it. But, Doctor, I had 
to do so. If I had not, the people of this country 
would never have given me another office worth while, 
as long as I live. If I had refused so unanimous and 
enthusiastic a call of my countrymen to service, I 
should have deserved to be relegated to the rear for- 
ever. My heart was broken with the affection and 
confidence of my f ellowmen, and when I came to be- 
lieve that the voice of the people was really the voice 
of God to me I accepted the position with cheerful- 
ness and gratitude. ' ' 

He was inaugurated Vice-president on the 4th of 
March, 1901. With his family he went into the Adi- 
rondaks for the summer. He was in the deep woods 
in camp and, being informed that President McKIin- 
ley had been shot, he hastened to Buffalo, where he 
remained three days. Learning from the physicians 
that the President would likely recover, he went back 
to his camp again, and there was found by the mes- 
senger sent to carry to him the sad news that Presi- 
dent McKinley had died September 13th. He rushed 
to Buffalo and was there sworn into office as the 
President of the United States. 



THEODORE ROOSEVELT AS PRESIDENT 
BY DR. ALBERT SHAW 



CHAPTER XII 

THEODORE ROOSEVELT AS PRESIDENT 

By Dr. Albert Shaw 

[Dr. Albert Shaw, on whose matchless editorials in the 
Review of Reviews I have fed for twenty-five years, was 
one of Colonel Roosevelt's most intimate friends. The Colo- 
nel has talked with me, times without number, about his 
appreciation of Dr. Shaw and of the splendid help that he 
had always given him in his fight for righteousness in this 
country, and I asked Dr. Shaw to share this tribute of 
affection for our mutual friend by giving me for this volume 
an estimate of Theodore Roosevelt as President. He cheer- 
fully complied with my request and gave me this ideal 
paper.] 

FOR one hundred and thirty years there has been 
in existence an office of growing prestige and 
authority in the world known as the American 
Presidency. This office has been filled by men of 
greatly varying qualities. All of them have been 
men of respectable attainments, and the list presents 
a high average of merit. It is not often, however, 
that in any country a statesman comes to the front 
who seems to embody in his own personality the best 
characteristics of his generation, so that he himself 
is a real epitome of his people and his times. Pericles, 
in the golden age of Athens, was a leader of this 

163 



164 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

kind. All that was best in the civilization of Greece 
seems to have been represented in the mind and char- 
acter of Pericles, Although the permanent qualities 
of Washington and Lincoln have been generally ad- 
mitted, there has never been agreement as respects 
either of these great Presidents upon the question 
whether or not they were in a broad sense the personal 
exponents of the America of their respective genera- 
tions. My own opinion is that we are arriving at 
a better understanding of the personality of each of 
these men, and that their representative qualities will 
grow more apparent as the intrinsic points attain more 
emphasis and the accidental points fall into their due 
place of relative unimportance. 

No matter, however, what may be thought in future 
regarding the broadly representative character of 
"Washington or Lincoln, there will never be any dispo- 
sition to deny the extraordinary extent to which Theo- 
dore Roosevelt as President was the typical American 
of his generation. 

No public man of any country has ever put himself 
so completely upon record as Roosevelt. There are 
many millions of living Americans who have heard 
him speak from the platform and who have distinct 
impressions of their own regarding his personality 
and his physical, mental, and moral attributes. There 
are also hundreds of thousands of men and women 
who had some personal acquaintance with him, and 
at least ten thousand people now living who knew 
him quite well. There are other thousands who have 
received characteristic letters from him. 

It is much easier to write, in a reminiscent way, 
about a man who was not widely known than about 
one whom everybody has had ample opportunity to 
understand and appreciate. Washington lived in a 



AS PRESIDENT 165 

period when facilities were lacking, so that compara- 
tively little was recorded about any public man. 
There was no shorthand reporting, typewriting ma- 
chines were not known, and a very scanty and meagre 
kind of journalism was given to discussion rather than 
to news. Lincoln's conspicuous public career was 
comparatively short, and the surviving information 
about the earlier part of his public life is relatively 
scanty. 

Mr. Roosevelt, by contrast, lived in a period of fully 
developed publicity. When he was not doing things 
that caused others to write about him, he was him- 
self writing books and articles that illustrated his 
own mentality and convictions. It was impossible for 
him to write extensively, in the field of American his- 
tory and biography, without expressing himself, so 
that the reader felt that he was learning to know 
the author as well as the subject matter. This was 
true of his earlier work on the * * Naval History of the 
War of 1812," and his volumes, entitled ''The Win- 
ning of the West." The story of Roosevelt, there- 
fore, will, when it is fully told by some great historian 
and biographer of the future, be a history of the de- 
velopment of the United States in the period covering 
the greater part of his life-time. 

The youth of Roosevelt illustrates the growth of 
American life and society, as typified in the history 
of his family and connections both North and South. 
His education at Harvard illustrates American col- 
lege life as it was some forty years ago. His intel- 
lectual interests relate themselves, particularly, to the 
condition of the country as it was in his boyhood. 
All that lay behind us of pioneer development was 
fascinating to him, and he identified himself in sym- 
pathy, knowledge, and personal experience with the 



166 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

further and later westward movements in the subdu- 
ing of the continent. The animal life of the country, 
the forest and streams, the mountains — all were ar- 
dently studied in the spirit of naturalist and explorer 
as well as in that of the keen student and observer 
of the processes of nation building. 

From this eager study of nature and of the coun- 
try 's resources and growth, Theodore Roosevelt gained 
an early reward in the form of an abounding physical 
vitality that supported his prodigious mental activity 
throughout his entire life. This physical vigor, to- 
gether with his efficient industry, was the dominating 
thing in his career on the personal side. 

Thus Roosevelt brought to the Presidency great 
vigor of mind and body, and a special preparation 
which had consisted of diligent study of American 
history and political problems. And this study, had 
been made not only in books, but also in a varied ex- 
perience which had made him an authority in several 
definite fields. In whatever kind of effort he had been 
engaged, as a part of the training which fitted him 
for the supreme test of the world's greatest office, he 
had always shown capacity for seeing the possibilities 
of the thing he was doing, and for putting his great 
fund of vital force into the day's work, whatever it 
might be. 

During Harrison's administration and a part of 
Cleveland's, he had served as Civil Service Commis- 
sioner at "Washington and had come to know thor- 
oughly the methods of administration in the govern- 
ment departments, and the practical aspects of the 
so-called ''spoils system." This identification with 
the great work of improving government machinery 
had gone far toward fitting him for his subsequent 
place at the head of the government. 



AS PRESIDENT 167 

As Police Commissioner in New York he had shown 
himself a kind of "social engineer," working in- 
tensely to improve the conditions of living for the 
masses of people in the crowded parts of the me- 
tropolis. 

As Assistant Secretary of the Navy and as Colonel 
of the Eough Riders he had gained practical expe- 
rience, so that he was especially competent to deal 
with everything having to do with the defenses of 
the country. 

Returning from Cuba to become Governor of New 
York, he had entered upon a new set of political and 
administrative experiences that contributed in no 
small measure to his rounded fitness for the Presi- 
dency. A less vital and capable man might have gone 
through similar experiences, culminating in the Gov- 
ernorship of a State, without becoming pre-eminently 
fitted for the leadership of the nation in its supreme 
post of responsibility and power. 

Many men, indeed, of Mr. Roosevelt's own genera- 
tion had gone through varied experiences more or less 
comparable with his. But Roosevelt possessed the 
most exceptional capacity for the assimilation of ex- 
periences, by virtue of his great personal endowments 
of mental and physical strength, taken together with 
his moral qualities of single-heartedness, courage and 
public-mindedness. 

All these statements that I have made are obvious 
enough, because I am merely assembling points that 
are familiar to everyone who has given any thought 
to the career of Theodore Roosevelt. Yet it is neces- 
sary to have in mind the physical, mental and moral 
aspects of Roosevelt's personality, together with the 
varied experiences of his earlier life, in order to ap- 
preciate the man who became President in 1901 when 



168 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

in his forty-third year — the youngest President of 
the United States. 

The boyishness of Roosevelt was so conspicuous 
a trait that no one ever thought of him as other 
than a young man to the very day of his death. He 
had a number of grandchildren, yet he seemed at 
sixty a young man, like his sons. His youthfulness 
was not related to juvenility or immaturity. He had 
left those qualities behind him and had shown rare 
manliness while very young. His literary work had 
been surprisingly mature, so that the books he wrote 
in his twenties held their own — without apologies for 
the novice hand — on the shelf with the writings of 
his later years. 

He had been conspicuous for his courage in facing 
the most difficult problems during his first term in the 
Legislature soon after he left college. He had been 
chairman of the great New York State delegation at 
the Republican National Convention of 1884 when 
he was twenty-five years of age. I followed his work 
in that convention with the utmost admiration, and 
I knew him closely in a number of subsequent con- 
ventions, including the latest ones that he attended. 
He was always buoyant and youthful, at the same 
time that he was serious of purpose and alive to his 
responsibilities. 

This youthful quality had much to do with the 
magnetism of Theodore Roosevelt and the charm 
which was felt by every one who associated with him. 
It was derived in part from his perfect health and 
wonderful physical vitality. He was always spon- 
taneous and always able to turn rapidly from one 
thing to another. His spirits were so high, his energy 
so great, and his sympathy so wide, that he would 
have appeared wholly irrepressible but for the innate 




© Underwood & Underwood, N. Y. 
COTv. KOOSEVKI.T AT CHICKAMAUGA, TENN. 



AS PRESIDENT 169 

dignity that never failed him, and the perfection of 
manner that has never been surpassed by any incum- 
bent of the White House. 

I once saw him come down the main stairway to 
greet a distinguished Archbishop who was to be a 
luncheon guest. A small dog had arrived that morn- 
ing from Oyster Bay and had not yet seen the head 
of the family. The joy of the little animal was so 
overwhelming as his master came down the stairs 
that, forgetting everything, the President was on the 
floor with the dog while the Archbishop stood at at- 
tention eight or ten feet away. But Mr. Roosevelt was 
himself again as President in fifteen seconds, and the 
Archbishop enjoyed and perfectly understood the boy- 
ishness of the nation's head; for the Archbishop, 
though an old man, had a boyish heart and knew the 
President well as a man whose sense of propriety was 
never really at fault. 

I remember on another occasion a conversation with 
the most experienced of the White House ushers. 
This man had been attached to the White House staff 
through a number of administrations. He was wait- 
ing for the President to come down to breakfast, and 
with a sweeping remark that was complimentary about 
former incumbents of the White House, he went on 
to say: 

' ' But there was never any man here like this man. 
He begins earlier; works harder; sees more people, 
and puts in longer hours than anybody who has ever 
been President. Yet he is never tired,, no matter how 
late he works; and he always comes down the stairs 
in the morning looking as fresh as the dew on the 

roses! And he steps up to me and says, 'Well, D , 

how is everything about the place? If anything is 
going wrong just let me know and we wili have it 



170 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

straightened out at once.' " At that moment the 
President came down the stairs with a firm tread, 
a clear eye, and a radiant smile, justifying everything 
that the admiring usher had said. 

His marvelous executive ability was due in great 
part to the habit he had formed of constant industry 
and of perfect concentration of mind. Many people 
can accomplish- a creditable amount of work if undis- 
turbed and if allowed to work consecutively at one 
thing. Mr. Roosevelt could not only work without 
being sensitive to disturbances, but he could turn rap- 
idly from one thing to another, compass each fresh 
situation, and bring to bear his whole power of de- 
cision. I have seen him for many hours at a time 
working at his desk in the White House offices, deal- 
ing with a great number of matters that were of 
vastly different degrees of importance. It need not 
be said that things which for one reason or another 
could not be settled were not rashly disposed of 
merely for the sake of clearing his desk. But if the 
case was in hand, he did not hesitate. He was never 
groping in the valley of indecision. His was neither 
the parliamentary temperament nor the judicial tem- 
perament, but it was in the highest sense that of the 
executive. He could lay out his work and perform it. 

A President who is not only willing, but anxious, 
to see people will not be left in solitude. Mr. Roose- 
velt, who could have had a third term with an over- 
whelming endorsement of the country but for his 
own firm resistance, did not step down to private life 
with the sense of relief that men feel who are fatigued 
and overburdened. He was able to say that he "liked 
his job" and that he had had a ''corking good time." 
This is perfectly true ; and it was due to a remarkable 
power of adjustment and balance. Mr. Roosevelt had 



AS PRESIDENT 171 

been busy, buoyant and happy in a number of pre- 
vious periods when doing different kinds of work. 

He lived in the White House what for him was a 
normal existence. "While public affairs of great mo- 
ment had their full claim on his time and effort and 
were never neglected, he had also time for family life, 
for recreation, for reading and study, and for the 
stimulus and pleasure of social intercourse. During 
all these years in the White House there was probably 
no family in the United States that enjoyed a more 
agreeable domestic life, with due regard for privacy, 
with vast attention to reading and to the processes 
of education, and with constant devotion to the proper 
requirements of sport and recreation. 

Mr. Roosevelt's knowledge of books in many fields 
was unsurpassed, while it may be suggested that Mrs. 
Roosevelt's acquaintance with the best books for chil- 
dren and young people, through practical experience 
in the domestic circle, was hardly equalled, excepting 
perhaps by a few specialists having charge of chil- 
dren's rooms in our public libraries. 

President Roosevelt found so much zest in his daily 
exercise that it ministered undoubtedly to his effi- 
ciency as a public servant. While dealing with mat- 
ters of the utmost delicacy and importance through 
the earlier hours of the day, it was no unusual thing 
for him to have the telephone busy in arranging to 
have three members of his so-called Tennis Cabinet 
present at exactly four o'clock. His exercise was usu- 
ally vigorous, and always taken in a systematic way, 
leaving him with ample time for the other parts of 
his daily program. 

At a given hour in the forenoon, the folding doors 
from his private office opened upon a large company 
of people assembled in the adjoining Cabinet Room. 



172 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

Many of these were members of Congress or officials 
from different States or cities. There were people 
from all professions and walks of life who had come 
with credentials which admitted them to the waiting 
rooms. President Roosevelt met these companies of 
callers with a graciousness of manner that put every- 
body at ease. His marvelous memory served him well 
on such occasions. 

Many of the callers were people whom he had met 
casually when on speaking tours throughout the 
country. Invariably he remembered them, even 
though he had not seen them for many years, and he 
always gave them a pleasant feeling by questions 
which showed how definitely he remembered occasions 
and people, particularly where children were con- 
cerned. Many of these callers had requests to make 
regarding appointments to office or other things of 
an official kind. Mr. Roosevelt, with a rapid sweep 
of the eye, noted everybody who was present and 
managed to give each person the feeling of having 
received a nod and a smile. 

Explaining to the others that Senators and Repre- 
sentatives had business to attend to on the Hill, he 
gave these officials the precedence and enabled them 
all to transact their business without a minute of 
undue waiting. After observing official proprieties 
in this fashion, he gave the preference to ladies and 
elderly people. In thousands of instances, of course, 
he was obliged to say that the thing requested could 
not be done ; but he knew how to say it in such a way 
as to spare the feelings of the visitor. If one must 
say * ' No, " it is well to be prompt and frank rather 
than to prolong the suspense. No public man has 
ever known better than President Roosevelt how to 
say "no" in a way that should make friends rather 



AS PRESIDENT 173 

than .ill-wishers. A few people there might be each 
morning with whom the President desired to consult 
more at length. These were quietly asked to wait 
until the others were disposed of, and then each one 
had his separate interview. 

Almost every day there were luncheon guests form- 
ing an agreeable group, quite dominated but always 
drawn out by the President's wonderful brilliancy, 
humor and variety as a conversationalist. At these 
luncheon parties were to be found visiting statesmen, 
soldiers, scholars, literary personages, explorers, re- 
formers, ecclesiastics and notable people from all parts 
of our own country and from Europe, South America, 
Asia and Africa. The President was so widely read 
and so active-minded that he derived healthy stimulus 
from meeting all these people, and was the better 
fitted for two hours more of afternoon work by reason 
of his personal contacts. 

After his recreation hour, there intervened an hour 
or two of reading and family life before the more 
formal evening meal, when very frequently there were 
also distinguished guests. After nine or ten o'clock 
in the evening, President Roosevelt was able to with- 
draw to his private study on the second floor of the 
"White House, where for an hour, or, if need be two 
or three hours, he might work with stenographers 
upon important letters, diplomatic memoranda, mes- 
sages to Congress or the drafts of speeches and 
addresses that he was to make. 

It was not his habit to defer preparation of ad- 
dresses until the last moment ; and still less did he be- 
lieve that he could trust to some kind of inspiration 
when on his feet. If he was going off to deliver a 
series of speeches, he preferred to plan the series defi- 
nitely in advance, and he dictated the essential parts 



174 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

of all of them before delivering the first. He could 
of course modify them ad libitum as he went along, 
but he never relied upon fluency as a substitute for 
preparation. His messages to Congress were stu- 
diously prepared and were always ready well in 
advance. 

One reason why Mr. Roosevelt as President was 
able to see so many people, and to have his days so 
full of varied contacts, was the practical way in 
which he used his powers of assimilation. He was 
fond of saying to some of his friends that they had 
never taken too much of his time or that their letters 
to him were not too long, because he was making it 
a point to get more from them for his purposes than 
they were able to get from him. As a man who was 
reading, for example, everything that was worth while 
about travel, exploration, hunting and colonial and 
political conditions in Africa, he knew how to sup- 
plement his knowledge by eager questioning of some 
returned traveller or, better still, some personage iden- 
tified with affairs in South Africa, the Soudan, or 
elsewhere. 

While swift in decision, President Roosevelt always 
sought to avail himself of the best possible advice 
before acting. Members of his Cabinet were con- 
sulted fully about all that pertained to their depart- 
ments, and were constantly called upon to aid in the 
formulation of broad policies, whether domestic or 
foreign. What may be called the moral momentum 
of the administration was Mr. Roosevelt's own. In 
the expression of policies, and in his discussions of 
public affairs, he was almost invariably aided by Cab- 
inet officers and other trusted advisers. He was not 
resentful of criticism in points of detail, but con- 



AS PRESIDENT 175 

stantly availed himself of the services of critics upon 
whom he could rely. 

Thus his official relations were exceedingly frank 
and agreeable, and his administration was greatly 
strengthened in its prestige and in its achievements by 
the exceptionally good team work of the official per- 
sonnel. 

In the McKinley campaign of 1896, Mr. Roosevelt 
had taken very strong ground against the free silver 
movement and had been regarded in the West and 
South as the embodiment of the spirit and attitude 
of AVall Street and the "money trust." He was not 
particularly fond of financial and economic questions 
as such, but he seized upon any phases of them that 
involved principles of public morality. The silver 
movement to him was abhorrent because he thought 
it fundamentally dishonest. He was in some danger 
of misjudging great masses of his fellow countrymen 
at that time, and of aspersing their motives. 

Later on he realized that their intentions had been 
upright, although their views upon the money ques- 
tion were erroneous. I had occasion at that time, 
in what I believed to be his own interest, to blue- 
pencil a manuscript of his to the sacrifice of many 
of its most readable paragraphs. He had written it 
in the heat and fervor of the campaign, and its chal- 
lenges were personal, unsparing and very widely dis- 
tributed. In after years he mentioned the matter 
not infrequently, and always with thanks for what 
he characterized as the cool judgment and foresight of 
the editorial revision. 

His acceptance of the verdict at the moment was 
a remarkable illustration of his capacity for taking 
disinterested advice on its merits, and without being 
mortally offended. The manuscript as I revised it 



176 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

holds its place to-day among his collected essays. He 
had dictated it hastily at night after an evening of 
campaign speaking, and the political and moral force 
of the article remained, while the trenchant assaults 
upon individuals and groups (who afterward became 
his personal friends and his permanent allies in poli- 
tics) were eliminated. 

Even in the making of those attacks, he was wholly 
free from ill-feeling or malice. He was engaged in 
a fight, was confident of the justice of his cause, and 
was hitting — a little harder than he realized — some 
opponents whose motives were good but whose facts 
and logic were mistaken. Life for him was so full 
of wholesome interest, and his healthy zest for various 
studies and activities was so absorbing, that it was 
quite impossible for him to cherish grudges or to 
cultivate animosities. 

The United States had come through the period of 
the Spanish War with a greatly enlarged place in the 
worldc Mr. Roosevelt brought to the Presidential of- 
fice the qualities needed for that era. His American- 
ism was supported by so much of vigor, courage and 
frank audacity that his prestige made itself felt every- 
where. The Monroe Doctrine was more fully vindi- 
cated than ever before in the adjustment of the Pan- 
ama Canal policies, the arbitration of the Venezuela 
claims and in other ways. Good understandings be- 
tween the British Empire and the United States were 
promoted as a basis of American policy. Mr. Roose- 
velt's relations with foreign diplomats at Washington 
were cordial and sincere, and during his years in 
office we were more entirely on good terms with the 
world than at any previous moment in our history. 

The Roosevelt period was marked by the massing 
of capital and the lessening of competition in rail- 



AS PRESIDENT 177 

roads and industries. The forming of trusts and 
combinations called attention to the dangers of un- 
restrained capitalistic control. President Roosevelt 
led in the movement for reforming railroad manage- 
ment and for controlling trusts. In the working out 
of these problems of "big business," there were new 
alignments, and the President's strongest support 
came from quarters which had once looked upon him 
with suspicion as the special protege of the circles of 
wealth and privilege. 

Everybody, however, came to see that his sole ob- 
ject was to build public policy upon sound principles 
of justice, with a "square deal" for all men alike. 
He was a life-long exponent of right-mindedness in 
public affairs ; and the processes of reform which were 
set in motion while he occupied the White House will 
have accomplished results of profound importance 
for more than one generation. 



PANAMA CANAL— GENERAL GOETHALS 



CHAPTER XIII 
PANAMA CANAL— GENERAL GOETHALS 

CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS started witli the 
Cross of Christ for India, by a new route, 
and headed straight from Spain toward India. 
He did not know that a hemisphere was between him 
and the Far East, and in his voyage westward struck 
the island of San Salvador and revealed a new world. 
Had it not been that God had hung two continents by 
a narrow strip of land he could have gone straight 
through the Atlantic into the Pacific and to India. 
Ever since that time men have tried to cut a canal 
across that strip at the Isthmus of Panama, making 
the Atlantic and the Pacific one. 

Four hundred years ago Spain felt that there ought 
to be such a passageway opened that she might have 
access to the gold and the rich agricultural products 
of Peru, and her kings and engineers undertook to 
set in motion such plans, but they found that the 
difficulties were so insurmountable that the proposi- 
tion was abandoned. The United States, feeling the 
importance of such a trans-Isthmian route in the pro- 
motion of its commercial and military interests, turned 
its attention to the building of such a canal. About 

181 



182 THEODORE EOOSE^'ELT 

seventy years ago a treaty was signed by our govern- 
ment with New Granada, afterward Colombia, as a 
preliminary step to the great undertaking. In 1850 
the Clayton-Bulwer treaty between United States and 
Great Britain was signed. In 1866 the first canal 
commission was appointed by the United States gov- 
ernment. Ten years later the committee reported in 
favor of the Nicaraguan Canal. Five years after this 
Ferdinand de Lesseps, having earned world-fame as 
the promoter of the Suez Canal, organized a French 
company to build a sea-level canal at the Isthmus of 
Panama. After eight years, the expenditure of three 
hundred million dollars, and the sacrifice of many 
precious lives the project was given up as a failure. 
There was bad engineering and business recklessness, 
if not dishonesty, in the administration, and the dream 
of four centuries went up in smoke. The Spanish- 
American War called fresh attention to the necessity 
of America 's building and owning a canal at the Isth- 
mus of Panama. In 1901 the Hay-Pauncefoote treaty 
between the United States and Great Britain revoked 
the Clayton-Bulwer treaty and gave our government 
full sovereignty rights on any canal across the isth- 
mus. In the same year a new Panama committee was 
created, which made a report favoring the Nicaraguan 
route, and in 1902 Congress passed a bill authorizing 
the purchase of the old French rights of the canal 
for forty million dollars and recommending the con- 
struction of the canal at Panama. 

Theodore Roosevelt had just gotten settled in the 
saddle as President of the United States when things 
began to move with reference to this gigantic enter- 
prise. The Panama Canal, requiring the greatest 
piece of engineering since the world began, appealed 
to him — it was his size. The failures of the centuries 



PANAMA CANAL 183 

meant nothing to an intellect like his, and a will that 
knew no obstacles. He determined it should be built, 
and he built it. Obstacles as great as those that made 
the dream of the centuries a failure confronted him, 
but one after another he met and conquered them, 
and the canal stands perhaps as his greatest monu- 
ment, if not the greatest monument to any character 
in the world. The early canal commissions being led 
by civilians was so tied up with governmental red tape 
that they made unsatisfactory progress. President 
Roosevelt picked out a West Point graduate, a pro- 
fessional engineer, secured authority from Congress 
to give him a free hand in the Canal Zone, which it 
had acquired, and Lieut.-Col. George W. Goethals, 
magnificently equipped for his work in every way, 
stood as a mighty giant by the side of Roosevelt and 
was his strong right arm in cutting through the Pan- 
ama Canal. The canal extends from deep water at 
Colon on the Atlantic to deep water at Panama on 
the Pacific, a distance of fifty miles, or forty miles 
from shore to shore. It has great lakes and locks, 
and it is a practical business proposition with ships, 
even the largest of them going both ways from ocean 
to ocean. In time of war our ownership of it is of 
unspeakable advantage. 

One of the most mighty triumphs of the Panama 
administration was the sanitary revolution affected in 
the Canal Zone. The mosquitoes were killed, yellow 
and other deadly fevers that formerly made success 
impossible were banished, and one of the worst plague 
spots on the earth was made as healthy as the average 
American city. This work was done under the direc- 
tion of Colonel Gorgas of the medical corps of the 
United States army. 

These two magnificent giants stand side by side m 



184 THEODORE EOOSEVELT 

this titanic undertaking. If Roosevelt had no other 
monument, the Panama Canal would make him im- 
mortal. Major-Gen. George W. Goethals shares that 
immortality, by the superb manner in which he put 
into active operation President Roosevelt's plans. 
The undertaking has glory enough to go all around, 
and any one who had anything to do with the building 
of that canal, from the Secretary of War down 
through the leading engineers, through the gold men, 
down through the silver men to the humblest laborer, 
deserves the gratitude of his countrymen. Those 
thirty-five thousand persons that did the work, and 
those who may have sacrificed their lives in the under- 
taking, are as much patriots as any soldier in the army 
and as much heroes as the soldiers on the battlefield. 
They will never know how valuable their lives were 
to their country and what a monumental service they 
rendered to their fellow-citizens and the people of the 
world. And the dear women who went with their 
families to care for the men at their tasks were just 
as loyal patriots as the men themselves and deserve 
the lasting gratitude of mankind. 

Major-General Goethals not only finished the Pan- 
ama Canal, but when, his work done and his plans 
all formed for a return home, the great slides closed 
the waterway, he went back on the job and stayed 
there until dredges and shovels had restored the canal. 
He restored it so completely that, since its second 
opening on April 15, 1916, it has been ready, every 
day, to serve the nation and the commerce of the 
world. In recognition of his pertinacity of purpose 
and his engineering record the general was awarded 
the John Fritz Medal, one of the hightest attainable 
for an engineer. 

I called on General Goethals and asked him for a 



PANAMA CANAL 185 

few facts with reference to the relation of Mr. Roose- 
velt to the building of the canal, to be used in this 
volume; he cheerfully consented, and gave me the 
following : 

My relations with Colonel Roosevelt could not be called 
intimate, and I saw him personally only in connection with 
canal matters during the time of his Presidency, and sub- 
sequently when I visited the States I invariably reported 
to him the condition of affairs, knowing his extreme inter- 
est in the project. My first interview was* in February, 
1907, following a conversation with Mr. Taft, then Secretary 
of War, who advised me that in consequence of a letter re- 
ceived from Mr. Stevens, the President had concluded to 
accept his resignation ; that he had recommended me to suc- 
ceed him, and that the President would probably ask me 
to call on him in connection with the matter. 

That evening I visited him at the White House, by re- 
quest, and found that he had spent the evening discussing 
the advisability of awarding the contract for the construc- 
tion of the canal, though not definitely committed to such 
action. We spent nearly two hours discussing the various 
provisions of the specifications, the pros and cons, so far 
as the contractor and the government interests were con- 
cerned, and I was particularly impressed with his intimate 
knowledge of all details affecting the canal, and the con- 
struction difficulties which were liable to be encountered. 
I was furnished with a copy of the specification, as well 
as with the summary of bids, asked to go over them and be 
prepared to discuss them again with him on the second night 
following. 

At the beginning of this interview he advised me that he 
had concluded to accept Mr. , Stevens' resignation and de- 
cided to turn the construction work over to the army engi- 
neers and to order me to the canal to take charge. 

We again spent considerable time in discussing the pro- 
posed contract, the financial arrangements made by the 
lowest bidder for furnishing the bond, and at the conclusion 
it was definitely decided that all bids would be rejected 
and, whether the work should be done by contract or other- 
wise, would be postponed for a period of six months, dur- 
ing which time I would be given an opportunity to study 



186 THEODOEE ROOSEVELT 

conditions on the isthmus and to report my reasons as soon 
as I reached a conclusion as to the method that should be 
adopted for completing the work. 

The next personal contact I had with him was in Janu- 
ary, 1908. Prior to this I had submitted recommendations 
relative to carrying on the work, advocating the abandon- 
ment of the contract method for reasons which were speci- 
fically stated in the report that I made to him. At the 
January interview the organization charged with the con- 
struction of the canal was discussed at great length. The 
Spooner Act of 1902, which authorized the President to 
construct the canal under certain conditions, stipulated that 
it should be done through an agency consisting of seven 
members. The commission was to pass upon all plans and 
all matters of detail connected with the project, even to 
the extent of employments and salaries attached thereto. 
It was a very bulky organization, had not worked satis- 
factorily in the past, and was not working satisfactorily. 

Subsequently to the passage of the Spooner Act, Mr. 
Roosevelt, recognizing the inherent diflSculties of commission 
organization for management, had endeavored to secure a 
modification of the law so as to concentrate the authority 
and fix the responsibility. But Congress, fearful of vest- 
ing so much power in the hands of one man, had failed to 
enact the necessary legislation. The House of Representa- 
tives had consistently supported the President, but the Sen- 
ate was always the deterring and opposing influence. 

On the recommendation of Mr. Taft in 1905, the Presi- 
dent, by executive order, had reorganized the commission 
by the creation of an executive committee of three, who 
were to be the active members in passing upon the vari- 
ous matters requiring immediate attention, and for which 
the calling together of the entire commission was not prac- 
ticable. And this had not worked satisfactorily. Certain 
jealousies and bickerings had arisen which the President 
realized and stated were not conducive to efficiency, and 
after our conference he suggested that I draw up an execu- 
tive order which would bring about a reorganization and 
accomplish the results which we were both anxious to se- 
cure. I caused such an executive order to be prepared and 
submitted it to the President, who signed it; as a conse- 
quence of which, the work was reorganized and carried for- 
ward to completion. 



PANAMA CANAL 187 

Omitting the taking of Panama, which Colonel Roose- 
velt claims to have done, and the details of wnich I am not 
at all familiar with, the most important step in connection 
with the canal which he took was accepting the report of 
the minority of the Board of International Engineers, con- 
vened for the purpose of determining the type of canal 
which should be constructed and advocating the construc- 
tion of the lock type of canal. In view of the prominence 
of the engineers signing the report, the study that they 
gave to the question, it is rather remarkable that after in- 
dicating in his letter of instructions to the board his de- 
sire to accomplish the construction of a sea-level canal, if 
such were practicable, that he should, after the report was 
submitted, have disregarded the recommendation of the ma- 
jority and advocate the lock type. Not only did he advocate 
the lock type, but he worked strenuously for it, and, practi- 
cally due to his personal interest in the matter, succeeded 
in securing the consent of Congress. I spoke to him many 
times about this point, but could nevei* get a satisfactory 
answer as to the reasons which led him to pursue this 
course. Probably the length of time involved was the more 
important consideration to his mind, since at all my inter- 
views with him the necessity of securing the completion of 
the canal at as early a date as possible seemed to be the 
paramount consideration. The opposition that he developed 
by his action was strong and powerful, yet he succeeded 
in putting it over. 

The great objection by the opponents of the lock type of 
canal was the feasibility of constructing a dam at Gatun 
and the practicability of its holding the water of the lake, 
because of misinformation which had been disseminated 
and which had appeared in the minds of the members of the 
board relative to the underlying strata of the site. 

In the fall of 1909, during a flood of the Chagres River, 
and because of a slip in the rockpile forming the south 
tow of the Gatun dam, and which was sensationally her- 
alded in the press as a failure of the Gatun dam, the whole 
question of the lock type versus the sea-level canal was re- 
vived, and action had to be taken which resulted in the 
appointment of a Board of Consulting Engineers to advise 
the President concerning the project. The bigness of the 
President was clearly demonstrated by a letter that he 
wrote me concerning the whole subject, and stated that 



188 THEODOEE ROOSEVELT 

while we both thoroughly believed in the lock type, it is 
human to err and that we might have made a mistake. He 
personally felt the matter was of such great importance 
that no personal feelings or pride should stand in the way 
of a proper solution, and was willing to reverse his posi- 
tion if he felt that he had been in the wrong in the selec- 
tion of the type. 

As the accident, if it may so be called, was purely local 
and did not affect in any wise the feasibility and practica- 
bility of the construction of the dam, the Board of Engi- 
neers so reported, and he was very much gratified in the 
result, though he showed throughout that he was a big 
enough man to change his views if he felt that he was in 
the wrong. He would not allow politics to interfere in any 
part of the work. He was besieged on all sides to appoint 
men of various types to positions on the canal, and his at- 
titude is clearly exemplified by the fact that on one occa- 
sion he appointed as superintendent on one part of the 
work a brother of a political boss from the West. He did 
not remain long on the work for, feeling that he had been 
placed there by the President, he felt secure and did very 
much as he pleased. The next time I saw the President he 
was very much amused at the appeals which this man made 
to him to be reinstated, questioning my right to remove him 
under the circumstances, and remarked that he would .have 
no interference with the efficiency of the work, that he had 
given this man his chance, and as he had not availed him- 
self of it he would not take any further action in the 
matter. 

He took the attitude in all labor questions that these 
were matters which depended so largely on local conditions 
that, while he was willing to listen, he would not take any 
action that would in any wise disrupt affairs on the isth- 
mus, and that final decision must rest there. 

My association with him developed in me that same spirit 
of admiration and enthusiasm concerning him which is 
found in all men who have come closely in contact with him. 
His interest in the work never lagged. He was ever ready 
to assist in any way that could further its completion, 
though after he left office there was no inducement that 
would get him to visit the work, for he felt that his visit 
might be misinterpreted by others and felt it wiser to re- 
main away rather than be misunderstood. 



PANAMA CANAL 189 

In a recent address on Mr. Joseph Choate, Colonel 
Roosevelt made this reference to the great difficulties 
that confronted him in the building of the Panama 
Canal and of the manner in which those difficulties 
were overcome. He said: 

In the effort to secure the land and a concession of the 
rights required for the construction of the canal there was 
a succession of negotiations, resulting in agreement and 
then breaking of the agreement by Colombia, with a demand 
for constantly increasing compensation. I made up my 
mind that the talking about the canal might go on for fifty 
years without results, so I decided to secure for our coun- 
try the canal and let the people talk about the canal and 
me as they pleased for the next fifty years. 



HEART SECRETS TOLD IN A WALK TO 
THE WHITE HOUSE 



CHAPTEE XIV 

HEART SECRETS TOLD IN A WALK TO THE 
WHITE HOUSE 

HAVING an important matter to take up with 
President Roosevelt, I went down to Wash- 
ington Saturday afternoon, June the 9th, 
1906. In communicating with Mr. Loeb, the Presi- 
dent's able secretary, with reference to an appoint- 
ment on Monday, I said to him : 

"Will the President attend church Sunday morn- 
ing?" 

The secretary answered: **I presume so; he nearly 
always does. Let me see now, there may be doubt 
about his attending the service. He turned his ankle 
and the sprain is pretty severe; it may prevent his 
going to church. You know which one he attends, do 
you not? The Grace German Reformed Church on 
15th and O Streets, N. W. If you have no appoint- 
ment of your own to preach in the city, it might be 
well to worship at the President's church. If he 
should be able to get there I am sure he would be glad 
to see you." 

I was on hand seasonably. 

At three minutes to eleven an usher said: "He is 
always here by this time; he is not coming to-day." 

193 



194 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

"Yes, he is, all the same," answered another. 
"There he comes yonder, and he is walking to beat 
the band." 

Sure enough, there he was, the robust man in pep- 
per and salt suit made in business fashion, wearing a 
stove-pipe hat, throwing his arms and pushing and 
pulling his wounded leg with a perceptible limp at a 
rapid gait. 

Buttoning up my Sunday coat nicely, I said to my- 
self, "I will fool him," and started down the street, 
keeping my eyes away from him, thinking I could 
get past him without recognition. But no, when I had 
gotten about twenty feet away from him, he cried 
out : ' * My dear Dr. Iglehart, what are you doing here 
in Washington ? Where are you going to preach ? I 
am on my way to my church, but I will follow you 
anywhere to hear you preach." I said: "I do not 
preach anywhere this morning." "What brought 
you down?" "You," I answered. "I have come 
down on purpose to see you." "That was lovely in 
you to do that. I do not know any one in America 
I would rather see this day than you. Just turn 
around and go back with me to church and after the 
service we will walk back to the White House. To- 
morrow I have appointments with admirals, generals, 
Congressmen, Senators, etc., and we will be to our- 
selves, and we will have a bully visit together." 

On entering the church two surprises met me — 
first, the smallness of the audience room, having 
capacity for not more than five or six hundred; 
and second, the appearance of the congregation, hav- 
ing so few evidences of wealth or social pretense. The 
surprise in neither instance was a disappointment, for 
the audience room was new and neat and beautiful, 
and the congregation was of the common people with 



HEART SECRETS TOLD 195 

their intelligence and worth, the foundation of the 
best things in church and state. 

The ritual service, which was almost as elaborate as 
that of the Episcopal Church, was participated in 
scrupulously by the President, who stood, sat and 
responded at the proper time. He joined heartily in 
the singing, which was led by a precentor and organ- 
ist without a choir. He was the best listener I saw in 
the house. The weather was intensely hot, the mer- 
cury at ninety-five, and he kept a large palm leaf fan 
in his right hand going to the limit of its capacity 
every moment of the service. The pastor of the 
church, the Rev. Dr. Schenck, was not in his pulpit, 
and the secretary of the Missionary Society occupied 
his place and preached a most excellent sermon. It 
was children's day, and the minister preached on 
"The Home." It was clear, discriminating, sound, 
timely, pungent and inspiring. Just as he was con- 
cluding his sermon the President put his hand into 
his trousers pocket as though he were fishing for 
change for the collection soon to follow. When the 
plate came to his pew he took out his pocketbook, ap- 
parently as full as it could hold, and dropped a bill 
upon it which I took to be five dollars. 

After the benediction had been pronounced the 
audience remained standing till the President and the 
Secret Service men had left the house. No two- 
thousand-dollar carriage with spanking team nor five- 
thousand-dollar automobile awaited him at the door. 
These would have been an annoyance to him there, 
so full of life he was and so fond of exercise. 

I commenced to tell him something and he halted 
me and said : 

' ' Let me say something first and then you can go on 
with your story. ' ' He said : ' * The services this mom- 



196 THEODOEE ROOSEVELT 

ing were enjoyable. The sermon was good, and I agreed 
with him in the points he made that the home is the 
chief foundation stone of the republic and the hope 
of the church. The 'Holy, Holy, Lord God Almighty' 
is one of the grandest of hymns ; that went off splen- 
didly. After a week on perplexing problems and in 
heated contests it does so rest my soul to come into the 
house of the Lord and worship and to sing and mean 
it, the ' Holy, Holy, Lord God Almighty, ' and to know 
that He is my Father, and takes me up into His life 
and plans, and to commune personally with Christ 
who died for me. I am sure I get a wisdom not my 
own and a superhuman strength in fighting the moral 
evils I am called to confront. The other two hymns, 
while full of good theology and tender sentiment, did 
not create as much warmth or enthusiasm. Lusty 
singing is a great help in church worship." 

Then, pausing, he said: "Go on now with your 
story ! ' ' 

"I will when you have answered a question I will 
ask you," I replied. 

''What is it?" he inquired. 

"It is this," I said. "Why did you select this 
little church with its plain people, so inconspicuous 
and uninfluential comparatively?" 

He answered me with not a little feeling: 

' ' When I first came to Washington I did not know 
there was any Dutch Reformed church here, and 
went with my wife to the Episcopal church. But on 
becoming President I learned that there was a little 
obscure red brick building tucked away on the back 
of a lot, and I immediately selected that as my church. 
The fine new building has since been erected. I take 
sentimental satisfaction in worshiping in the church 
of my fathers. 



HEART SECRETS TOLD 197 

"Another reason why I came to this church is that 
it is a church of the plain people. There are persons 
of means and culture among them, but most of themi 
are the common people, to whom you know I am so 
partial. If there is any place on earth where earthly 
distinctions vanish it is in the church, in the presence 
of God. He knows no difference between the highest 
ruler and the humblest subject. All He cares for is 
character. I have been not a little grieved in attend- 
ing services in some of the rich churches of the great 
cities to see so much attention paid to social distinc- 
tions. I cannot think that the plainer people would 
be very happy if they were to attempt to worship in 
such places, and I fear that some of the rich and 
fashionable would be just as unhappy to have them 
do so. There is a minister in New York City to whom 
I have always given especial credit for having suc- 
ceeded, more than any one I know, in holding a large 
congregation of rich and poor people, in happy fellow- 
ship, for a long number of years. The nearer the 
people get to the heart of Christ, the nearer they get 
to each other, irrespective of earthly conditions." 

Continuing he said : "I am engaged in one of the 
greatest moral conflicts of the age — that of colossal 
lawless corporations against the government. I am 
not fighting rich men. Was I not raised among the 
rich? Did I not inherit money? I know what a 
blessing wealth is, honestly secured and wisely dis- 
pensed. I am fighting the institutions that have 
grown enormously rich by fraud; that have ground 
the faces of the poor and have for years shown such 
sullen contempt for the laws governing them. By a 
system of wholesale bribery, paid lobbyists have been 
placed at the State and national capitols to buy the 
law, and representatives have been selected in the 



198 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

state and national legislatures, and sometimes on the 
bench, to do their masters' will. Having trammeled 
the popular will by these dishonorable methods and 
secured laws as friendly to themselves as possible, 
they turn around and break those very laws in the 
most shameless manner. For years some of them have 
been stronger than the government and they have not 
been able to conceal the insolence which is begotten of 
despotic power. Any attempt to enforce the laws 
regulating them has been treated with impatience and 
contempt. ' ' 

He said: "The republic cannot live ten years 
longer if things go on this way. The oppression of 
lawless wealth, and the purchase of lawmakers and 
rulers by it, have wrecked most of the empires of the 
past, and if not resisted and defeated will ruin our 
republic. As the executive of this nation I deter- 
mined that no man or set of men should defy the law 
of the land. These huge lawless corporations are 
squirming now and crying 'Persecution!' but they 
have got to stop their crimes. All they have to do 
is to obey the laws like other people and there will be 
no trouble. My chief desire now is that God will let 
me live long enough to demonstrate the fact that the 
rich and powerful must obey the law as well as the 
poor and feeble — not any better nor any worse, but 
just the same.'' The President said "just the same" 
with great emphasis. 

I told him that the people of the country, irrespec- 
tive of religious creed or political opinion, were be- 
hind him in the great warfare he had undertaken. 

It was about a mile from the church to the White 
House and the walk was a very happy one for me. 
What the President said was so full of wisdom, of 
exhilaration and inspiration. I admired his strong 



HEART SECRETS TOLD 199 

body, of which he took such splendid care, which had 
served him so well in the enforcement of his intel- 
lectual plans. The flash of his eye indicated intel- 
lectual genius of the highest type and his tender 
words to me, personally, made me realize that his heart 
was wide and deep as the sea. But the thing that 
most impressed me was his moral heroism, his sim- 
plicity, his honesty, his justice and his intense devo- 
tion to the right. I felt that his promotion was the 
tribute a mighty nation had paid to the man the 
crown of whose greatness was his goodness, and I felt 
that there was a most intimate relation between Theo- 
dore Roosevelt, the ruler and favorite of a nation, and 
the church and the God of his fathers. 

Recently Colonel Roosevelt said to me: "You re- 
member the walk we had from the church to the 
White House, a dozen years ago, when I turned my 
heart inside out to you, and told you I believed God 
had raised me up to lead the nation in its desperate 
fight for its life against the illegal despotism of com- 
bined wealth in collusion with corrupt municipal, 
state and federal office holders, and that my daily 
prayer was that God would spare my life long enough 
to see that menace to the republic removed ? He did 
spare me, and I thank Him. But I thank Him most 
for sparing me to take a part in the settlement of the 
great world war. No Hebrew prophet was ever 
called up to cry out against the danger confronting 
his nation, or the moral evils that curse the world, 
more truly than I have been called up to plead for an 
ideal Americanism, strong, brave, just and pure, 100 
per cent, loyal American, and also to fight to the 
death absolute despotism in its oppressions and 
crimes, which in its demoniacal rage for world rule has 
killed off the flower of the world, its young men, and 



200 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

caused more agony than has ever been suffered since 
the world began. I thank God that I have lived to 
see the victory which places the United States in the 
forefront of the free peoples of the world and which 
means universal democracy with its liberty, happi- 
ness, thrift and love to the millions of the oppressed 
children of earth, which will hasten the establish- 
ment of the Kingdom of Christ in the world, with 
its universal peace, righteousness, and love." 

I know that Theodore Roosevelt took the Bible as 
the standard of individual character and national vir- 
tue, for he told me so, and I believe that God was in 
him and back of him in his miraculously great per- 
sonality and service for his country and the world. 




(Q Uudciwoud & Underwood, N. Y. 



GEN. WHEELER, GEN. WOOD AND COL. ROOSEVELT, 
SPANISH-AMERICAN WAR. 



INTERVIEWED PRESIDENT ON 
GOVERNOR HUGHES' RENOMINATION 



CHAPTER XV 

INTERVIEWED PRESIDENT ON GOVERNOR 
HUGHES' RENOMINATION 

I "WAS informed by one who knew that influential 
leaders of the Republican party intended to fight 
the renomination of Charles E. Hughes for the 
governorship of New York. The convention was to be 
held in the near future, and I felt that the situa- 
tion was serious and that some extra effort should be 
put forth to defeat such plans. I knew that Governor 
Hughes' savage attack upon race-track gambling had 
stirred the bitter hostility of the sporting gentry and 
both Democratic and Republican politicians who were 
in sympathy with them. I knew also that some of 
Colonel Roosevelt's friends who were candidates when 
Mr. Hughes was nominated had renewed their plans 
for the nomination of somebody else. Fearing that 
there might be a hitch in renominating Governor 
Hughes, I instinctively turned toward Theodore 
Roosevelt, to whom I had always gone for so many 
years when a moral issue was at stake, with my con- 
cern and alarm for the decision of the Convention. 

And so I fired a long telegram to President Roose- 
velt, at Oyster Bay, saying that it would not do to 
nominate any one else but Hughes; that he repre^ 
sented, in personal character and public administra- 
tion, the highest ability and the strongest virtue; 
that the church people were, as a body, behind him, 
and that they would resent his defeat at the conven- 

203 



204 THEODOEE ROOSEVELT 

tion with anger and rebellion. I said in my message 
that such a failure would defeat Taft by more than 
one hundred thousand votes, when he ought easily to 
carry New York, and that it would be in the interest 
of righteousness for him to use his utmost influence in 
securing the nomination of Mr. Hughes. I knew how 
he loved the best things, and I knew also how anxious 
he was that Taft should have the solid church vote 
for the presidency. I received on the same day a 
telegram from the President, asking me to come out 
to Oyster Bay on the first train in the morning, in- 
dicating the time of the train. 

On reaching Oyster Bay station, a chauffeur came 
up to me and asked me if I were Dr. Iglehart, and 
said the President had sent his car down to bring me 
out to Sagamore Hill. And in a few minutes we were 
at his home. There were perhaps a dozen persons ia 
the reception-room, and Mr. Roosevelt came to me and 
said : " I have men here from half-a-dozen States with 
important interests, but I consider that matter about 
which you wired me yesterday of supreme impor- 
tance." He said, ''Come back with me, and we will sit 
on the porch and have a talk and nice visit together." 
He pulled two large cane armchairs close together, 
and we rocked and talked and laughed and visited; 
and then he said, ''Now, tell me just exactly how 
you feel about the renomination of Hughes, and the 
reason why it ought to be done." 

"Governor Hughes, I believe, is one of the ablest 
men, intellectually, in this country," I said. "His 
mind is clear, keen and discriminating; his will is 
all-daring, and his conscientious convictions are as 
deep as his life. Primarily, there is no use trying to 
look for an abler man if he were in sight, and he ia 
not." Mr. Roosevelt said, "You are right in your 



GOV. HUGHES' RENOMINATION 205 

estimate of him ; I consider him one of the most bril- 
liant men, intellectually, in the United States. It 
would be hard to match him anywhere, and I believe 
that his moral uprighteousness is as strongly marked 
as is his intellectuality." Then I said to him, '*He 
has fairly earned a renomination by his wise and fear- 
less administration, and especially for the relentless 
warfare he has made on race-track gambling and on 
other evils. It would be nothing short of a calamity 
to let a man be turned down as the penalty of his 
moral heroism, and I cannot think of anything that 
would so deeply offend and enrage the best people 
of our State, irrespective of political opinion. I have 
named as the first reason for his renomination, his 
great ability and peculiar fitness for the office; the 
second, the valuable service of his honest and fearless 
administration; the third reason I would give is one 
of political expediency. I have always loved you, 
and supported you, because you put moral principle 
ahead of everything else and always appealed to the 
moral convictions of the people to support you. They 
have always responded to your appeal because they 
were loyal to the right. And thus you have demon- 
strated that which the nation had never before 
learned — that the wisest political expediency is in the 
espousel of the highest moral principle, that right is 
the most popular thing that can be injected into a 
political campaign. 

"If Governor Hughes should be turned down at 
that convention, because he fought moral evil so val- 
iantly, the good people of the State would bolt the 
Republican ticket in droves and would take great 
pleasure in defeating the party that, with its eyes 
wide open, chose the wrong side of a moral question. 
Your friend Taft, whom you are championing for the 



206 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

presidency, would be buried in New York State by 
an avalanche of votes." Mr. Roosevelt said to me: 
"Everything you have said of Governor Hughes' 
ability, character and service is true; I consider that 
he is incorruptible in his character, and that the pub- 
lic interests would be safe in his hand. While in most 
states I have kept my hands off the local contests and 
factional differences, and while I have not felt like ob- 
truding myself upon the differences of our political 
leaders in this State, if I can see clearly that the ac- 
tion you urge will be for the best interest of the peo- 
ple and of the highest public morals, I will break the 
rule which I have usually kept and see if I can bring 
about his nomination." He said, "We will begin 
just now." 

He did not at that time call in any stenographer nor 
make any notes, nor did I take any. He said, **You 
may report to the public what the President says." 
He went on for some little time. I remembered every 
word that he said to me. With a warm, hearty hand- 
shake and a heartier "God bless you" from him I 
went back in the car to the depot. Just as the car 
approached the depot I saw a train move out of it. 
As I got out of the motor I was met by a half-dozen 
or more reporters of the New York City papers, who 
gathered about me and said : * ' The train is gone, and 
there is no other one until an hour from now; you 
are marooned, and you may just as well surrender ; ' ' 
and they continued, "Well, what did he say about 
it?" "About what?" I answered. They said, "Oh, 
come off; don't seem so innocent. What did the 
President say about Governor Hughes 's nomination ? ' ' 
I answered, "Who said I talked with President 
Roosevelt on that subject ? ' ' And they said, ' * A little 
bird told us." 



GOV. HUGHES' RENOMINATION 207 

The reason why I was not communicative at first 
was that I wanted to put so important a message to 
the public in decent literary form, so that it might 
accomplish its purpose better, and desired a little 
time for consideration. But the boys were so insistent 
that I said, ''Have you a shorthand man in your num- 
ber?" And one of them spoke up and said that he 
was one. *'You and I will go to this corner, 
here in the station, and the rest will leave us 
alone, and I will see if I can put the substance of what 
the President said to me in proper form.'* The next 
morning all the New York papers and the papers in 
many cities of the country had the following: 

Oyster Bay, August 29. — President Roosevelt's atti- 
tude in r^ard to the political situation in New York was 
reflected to-day in an interview given out by the Rev. Dr. 
Ferdinand C. Iglehart, after a talk with the President at 
Sagamore Hill. *'The President," said Dr. Iglehart, "told 
me that he had no disposition to crowd his desire for Gov- 
ernor Hughes' renomination upon the leaders of the Re- 
publican party, but he did not hesitate to say that he 
thought it would be political wisdom to place Governor 
Hughes at the head of the ticket again this coming elec- 
tion." Dr. Iglehart, who is an intimate friend of the Presi- 
dent's, is a member of the New York Conference of the 
Methodist Church. He was with the President for some 
time, and the question of the renomination of Governor 
Hughes was discussed. After the conference Dr. Iglehart 
said that he was delighted to find that the President's 
views and his were in perfect harmony on the renomination 
of Governor Hughes. There was no doubt in his mind about 
the general desire of church people throughout the State for 
the renomination of the Governor. "They believe in his 
ability and integrity," Dr. Iglehart added, "and desire his 
continuance in office. These church people usually have 
given the Republican party the majority in the State elec- 
tions, and it seems to me that it would be a dangerous ex- 
periment for the political leaders not to accord him the 
nomination." Some votes, he thought, might be lost by the 



208 THEODOEE ROOSEVELT 

renomination of Governor Hughes, but he believed that 
where two or three would be lost dozens would be gained. 
"The line could not be more plainly drawn," Dr. Iglehart 
continued, "than it is at the present time, and the right 
side of a moral issue is a political asset which the Republi- 
can party will need, and must have, to succeed in the com- 
ing election. There is little doubt that revolt from the 
Republican ranks will be disastrous, if Governor Hughes 
shall not be nominated, as the feeling on the question is so 
deep that the revolt against the ticket would be calami- 
tous. To turn down a man like Governor Hughes, who has 
not only a State but a national reputation for political in- 
tegrity, would, in my judgment, be political folly. It seema 
to me that there is a large stick of dynamite in the politi- 
cal camp, which, without most careful handling, is in immi- 
nent danger of exploding. There are splendid men in the 
Republican party, any one of whom would make a good 
Governor, but no man, however able or virtuous, would be 
acceptable as a substitute for Governor Hughes, now that 
the issue has been drawn so distinctly. Whoever may or 
may not have been to blame for the difference between the 
Governor and the leaders of the party, it is evident that 
the church people of all denominations, and people of high 
moral instinct who are not members of any church, who 
summer and winter with the Republican party, desire the 
continuance of Governor Hughes in office, and desire it in- 
tensely. We do not believe the Republican leaders, many 
of whom are persons of good judgment and high moral 
ideals, will commit the colossal blunder of turning him 
down. We are strengthened in these convictions by the 
interview just had with the President, who as a political 
leader, and as an exponent of civic virtue, is a sagacious 
man to follow." 

BUSINESS COMMITTEE VISIT TO WHITE 
HOUSE 
Before Mr. Roosevelt had made his name and 
fame a household word I noticed that he was by- 
far the best informed man I had ever met. Of the 
hundreds of subjects I have taken up with him, there 
w^as not one about which he did not know much more 



GOV. HUGHES' RENOMINATION 209 

than I did myself, and some of those subjects were 
specialties upon which years of study and labor had 
been spent. And as years advanced I learned that he 
was not only regarded by those closest to him, but by 
well-nigh universal consent, as the best informed man 
in the largest range of subjects of anybody in the na- 
tion, if not in the world. Here is an incident which 
illustrates this fact. While he was President, a com- 
pany of New York business men came to me and said 
that they had some little difficulty in making an ap- 
pointment with the President at "Washington and 
asked if I would aid them in securing a hearing. I 
wired the President and got a date for the gentlemen, 
Tuesday morning of the next week. They then asked 
me to accompany them to Washington and be with 
them when they laid their proposition before Presi- 
dent Roosevelt. On Monday evening at the hotel the 
delegation met to plan the approach to the President 
the next morning. The leader explained how it was 
that he would use certain arguments and occupy cer- 
tain time in presenting the matter. He supposed that 
it would be like a hearing before a judge or a legis- 
lative committee and that fifteen or twenty minutes' 
time would be allowed him for the presentation of 
his subject. "You do not understand Mr. Roosevelt 
at all," I told him. *'If you were to undertake in a 
dignified manner to make the speech you contemplate 
before him, he would get up from his seat, without 
any ceremony, and instruct the clerk to call somebody 
else into the room and we would consider ourselves 
dismissed. He is so supremely busy that a minute 
with him is an hour. What you want to do is to take 
a card about as long as your thumb, put a heading of 
the things you intend to say in your speech and say 
them without any amplification and say them quickly. 



210 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

if you want his attention or his favor." I then told 
him that when he had read or recited the abstract 
on the little card, he would find that the President 
would instantly tell him ever so much more about the 
business he represented than he knew himself, though 
he had spent a lifetime in it. 

The President had gathered our little company in 
chairs about him and the leader did as he was advised 
to do. When he had gotten through with his pre- 
sentation, which took about two minutes, the Presi- 
dent instantly said, "Gentlemen, I understand that 
you want so and so ; these are the facts in the case, ' ' 
telling them things that they themselves did not know 
about their own business. I reached my foot over 
and put it down on the toes of the leader, reminding 
him that Mr. Roosevelt knew more about what he was 
talking about than he himself did. Then the Presi- 
dent continued, "Then you want me to do so and 
so." He did not wait for a word from the members 
of the committee, but said, "My mind is clear upon 
the subject, but I prefer that you should meet two 
members of my Cabinet, who have the responsibility 
in such matters; they will meet your committee this 
afternoon at three o'clock and you will know in time 
to go home to-night whether we shall be able to grant 
your request." 

This incident not only illustrates his almost infinite 
knowledge of facts, but also the rapidity with which 
he dispatched business at his office in the White 
House. The matters that had engaged the attention 
of these business men for years, some of them for life- 
time, with a matter over which they had talked and 
slept and dreamed, were attended to, as far as he him- 
self was concerned, in about three minutes. 



THEODOEE KOOSEVELT A HEECULES- 
BIG STICK— NATUKALIST— AUTHOR 



CHAPTER XVI 

THEODORE ROOSEVELT A HERCULES— BIG 
STICK— NATURALIST— AUTHOR 

IN Theodore Roosevelt we have so many great men 
combined in one that ordinary words and meas- 
urements do not justly describe him. Looking 
backward to find a parallel for him, we must go to 
the earliest history of Greece, to the mythical man 
called Hercules, son of the gods, powerful alike in 
body, mind and soul, the mightiest that Greece or 
the world could produce. Their classic poets pictured 
him as the symbol of power, wisdom and virtue. 

The similarity between the Hercules of classic story 
and Roosevelt, our modern Hercules, is thus seen. 
The ancient hero was a noted pugilist ; he was taught 
fighting by Castor; he was the best shot of the na- 
tion, and defeated in archery his teacher, Eurytus, 
and his three sons, who held the record up to that 
time. He was taught driving by Autolycus and sur- 
passed allother charioteers. A fine scholar, he learned 
wisdom from Minerva. He was the most famous of 
hunters and was happiest when he was killing lions 
and other man-eating beasts. He was a great patriot, 
slaying a hostile king and delivering the nation from 
a heavy annual tribute. He was a benevolent man 
and busied himself in protecting the people of his 
country from wild beasts and other dangers. He 
carried a big stick, sometimes of brass, but usually a 

213 



214 THEODOEE EOOSEVELT 

large wooden stick, with a big knot on the upper end 
of it, which he himself cut out of the forest. 

In most of the figures which we have preserved to 
this day Hercules holds that big stick in his hand. 
He was the symbol of the Greeks ' most powerful man. 
His weapon was strong enough and ever ready to^ 
hammer down the wrong and to protect the right. 
The parallel is not only in the equipment, but also 
in the marvelous deeds of the hero. 

The king of Argus and Mycenae was so jealous 
of the rising popularity of this great hero that he 
imposed upon him twelve tasks, each of which was 
supposed to be impossible. These are celebrated in 
mythology as the Twelve Labors of Hercules. The 
gods compelled him to undertake these twelve tasks, 
impossible to mortals, but equipped him for the per- 
formance of the miraculous deeds. He received from 
Minerva a coat of arms and helmet, from Mercury a 
sword, from Neptune a horse, from Jupiter a shield, 
from Apollo a bow and arrows, and the big stick. 

The following are the twelve labors imposed upon 
Hercules: 1, He killed the lion of Nemsea. 2, He 
killed the Hydra. 3, He caught the swift stag with 
golden horns and brazen feet that haunted the neigh- 
borhood of Oenoe. 4, He brought alive to the king 
the wild boar which ravaged his realm, and destroyed 
the Centauri. 5, He cleaned the Augean stables. 6, 
He killed the carnivorous birds of Lake Stymphalus. 

7, He captured the wild bull that laid waste Crete. 

8, He captured the man-eating mares of Diomedes. 

9, He obtained the girdle of Queen Hippolyte. 10, 
He killed the monster Geryon and set up the Pillars 
of Hercules at Gibraltar. 11, He secured the golden 
apples of the Hesperides. 12, He dragged on earth 
from Hades the three-headed dog Cerberus. 



NATURALIST AND AUTHOR 215 

There are more than twelve miraculous labors of 
our modern Hercules, but twelve stand out most 
prominently. 

FmsT — Our Hercules became the head of the na- 
tion. The ancient hero never did so great a thing as 
to become the ruler of the greatest nation of the world. 
With all his power, it is not recorded that he had 
any political favor or that he ruled any kingdom. . 

Second — He killed the spoils system, which threat- ' 
ened to overthrow the nation. The ancient hero 
turned the river into the Augean stables and cleaned 
them, but that was not as great a wonder as the 
cleansing of American politics by Theodore Roosevelt. 

Third — ^He used the big stick in crushing the il- 
legal combinations of wealth which menaced the re- 
public. 

Fourth — He dug the Panama Canal — a greater 
wonder than all the twelve labors of Hercules, and 
equal to the seven wonders of the world. 

Fifth — He settled the coal miners' strike. The 
miners in the anthracite district of Pennsylvania went 
on a strike which threatened to tie up the industries 
of the nation. Grievances on the part of employees 
and employers were deeply cherished and apparently 
irreconcilable. Passions were stirred to the highest 
degree and bloodshed was feared. President Roose- 
velt had no governmental commissions that he could 
use in the settlement. He had to take the matter 
up personally with the workmen, the proprietors and 
everybody concerned, and by his magnetism and pow- 
erful will he brought the two factions together, 
averted a tie-up in the nation and gave peace to the 
coal industry for years. 

Sixth — He secured the settlement of the war be- 
tween Russia and Japan. While the desperate war 



216 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

was raging between Russia and Japan in 1905, Presi- 
dent Roosevelt addressed through John Hay, his Sec- 
retary of State, a letter to the Emperor of Japan, 
and another to the Czar of Russia, suggesting that 
their interests as individual nations and the good of 
the world could be best served by closing the war, and 
suggested that peace commissions be appointed by 
each country, and that he himself would lend his kind 
offices in bringing about an amicable settlement. 

That peace commission began its conference at 
Portsmouth, New Hampshire, on August 10th, After 
about a week's conference the commission came to a 
dead-lock and President Roosevelt used his great per- 
sonal influence on the home governments and broke 
it. For this service in securing peace, he was awarded 
the Nobel Peace Prize, which was $40,000 in cash, 
which he gave to a society for aiding our American 
soldiers. 

At a dinner given by the Japanese Club to Baron 
Makino, Ambassador with the Japanese Peace Mission, 
just after Mr. Roosevelt 's death, the Baron said : ' ' Mr. 
Roosevelt materially aided in the settlement of the 
issues raised by the Russo-Japanese War and in the 
amicable adjustment of international difficulties grow- 
ing out of California's action regarding Japanese 
residents. When Japan had proved herself and the 
prowess of her soldiers and her navy, ' ' said the Baron, 
in reference to the conflict with Russia, "the con- 
vention was called and the conclusion of the terms 
which brought about an honorable peace was due 
greatly to the broad, straightforward, generous and 
even noble attitude taken by President Roosevelt. 
The death of Colonel Roosevelt leaves a gap in the 
ranks of men who have made the history of the world. 
As the friend of Japan he had been consistent in ren- 



NATURALIST AND AUTHOR 217 

dering our country valuable service which will always 
be appreciated." 

None of the twelve labors of Hercules can compare 
with this act of seizing two powerful nations at war 
with each other, pulling them apart and persuading 
them to live at peace with one another. 

Seventh — He wrote thirty-five books. Minerva 
taught Hercules; Roosevelt's wisdom was God-given. 
In spite of his supremely busy life, beside many other 
writings, he produced books which have an important 
place in the libraries of our country and in those of 
some other countries. The most important are as 
follows: Winning of the West, 1889-96; History of 
the Naval War of 1812, 1882; Hunting Trips of a 
Ranchman, 1885 ; Life of Thomas Hart Benton, 1886 ; 
Life of Gouveneur Morris, 1887; Ranch Life and 
Hunting Trail, 1888; History of New York, 1890; 
The Wilderness Hunter, 1893 ; American Ideals and 
Other Essays, 1897 ;• The Rough Riders, 1899 ; Life 
of Oliver Cromwell, 1900 ; The Strenuous Life, 1900 ; 
Works (8 vols.), 1902; The Deer Family, 1902; Out- 
door Pastimes of an American Hunter, 1906 ; Ameri- 
can Ideals and Other Essays; Good Hunting, 1907; 
True Americanism ; African and European Addresses, 
1910; African Game Trails, 1910; The New National- 
ism, 1910 ; Realizable Ideals (the Earl lectures), 1912 ; 
Conservation of Womanhood and Childhood, 1912; 
History as Literature, and Other Essays, 1913 ; Theo- 
dore Roosevelt, an Autobiography, 1913 ; Life His- 
tories of African Game Animals (2 vols.), 1914; 
Through the Brazilian Wilderness, 1914 ; America and 
the World War, 1915; A Booklover's Holidays in the 
Open, 1916; Fear God, and Take Your Own Part, 
1916; Foes of Our Own Household, 1917; National 
Strength and International Duty (Stafford Little lee- 



218 THEODOKE EOOSEVELT 

tures, Princeton Univ.), 1917. Of all his writing the 
"Winning of the West is the most ambitious of his ef- 
forts and the one that will have the longest life. 

"While Police Commissioner we asked him to give 
■QS a lecture for the reduction of the church debt. He 
said he was just finishing a book on which he had 
been working for years, on the winning of the West, 
a quotation from which he could give as a lecture. 
He gave the lecture. In it he began with the moral 
and mental elements in the making of the new civiliza- 
tion and then spent the rest of the hour on the tre- 
mendous importance of the moral and religious ele- 
ments in the Winning of the West. He paid the high- 
est tribute to the pioneer ministers of all denomina- 
tions. He said that their movement westward kept 
pace with the movement of the frontier, that they 
shared all the hardships in the life of the frontiers- 
man, at the same time ministering to that frontiers- 
man's spiritual needs, and seeing that his pressing 
material cares and the hard and grinding poverty of 
his life did not wholly extinguish the divine fire 
within his soul. 

Eighth — He achieved wonders in nature study. 
His knowledge of plant life was miraculous. Theo- 
dore Roosevelt knew the name of about every tree in 
the forest, the kind of bark, stem and leaf that each 
possessed; the name of every plant and flower, its 
feature and habit in this country and in others. Al- 
most no hand in the nation spared the woodsman's 
axe in the destruction of our forests like his. Know- 
ing the value of trees in the preservation of the rivers 
and fertility of the soil, and protection *o wild life; 
knowing also the value of trees as a source of health 
companionship and moral training to the people, he 
set apart one hundred and fifty national forests with 



NATURALIST AND AUTHOR 219 

an area of three hundred thousand square miles, five 
great National Parks, four reservations for big game 
and twenty-two reservations of American antiquities. 
The land which during his administration was set 
apart, to the perpetual happiness and mental and 
moral benefit of the people, amounted to an area 
greater than all of Germany. It was but natural 
that Congress should name one of the greatest Na- 
tional Parks of the world after him. Some of the 
charming passages in literature are Roosevelt's de- 
scriptions of the beauty, the fragrance and the value 
of flowers. 

His knowledge of animal life was just as marvelous 
as that of the vegetable kingdom. He tells a story 
himself in his autobiography that when a small boy 
he saw the head of a seal at the meat market near 
his house and that he secured it and made it the ob- 
ject of study and basis of the Roosevelt museum, 
which he and his cousins established with the speci- 
mens which they found near at hand. He knew the 
name, family and habit of nearly all insects, reptiles, 
fishes, domestic and wild animals, of birds and other 
creatures in our land and in some other lands. His 
world-wide travels were largely to increase his knowl- 
edge of the plant and animal life that God has created. 

From his earliest recollection to the day of his 
death Theodore Roosevelt was passionately fond of the 
birds, and for forty years of his life they had no such 
true and efficient friend as he. President Roosevelt 
thus paid a tribute to the friendly service rendered 
by the birds to man: ''The cotton boll-weevil, which 
has recently overspread the cotton belt of Texas and 
is steadily extending its range, is said to cause an 
annual loss of about $3,000,000. The Biological Sur- 
vey has ascertained and given wide publicity to the 



220 THEODOEE ROOSEVELT 

fact that at least 43 kinds of birds prey upon this de- 
structive insect. It has discovered that 57 species of 
birds feed upon scale-insects — dreaded enemies of the 
fruit grower. It has shown that woodpeckers as a 
class, by destroying the larvae of wood-boring insects, 
are so essential to tree life that it is doubtful if our 
forests could exist without them. It has shown that 
cuckoos and orioles are the natural enemies of the 
leaf-eating caterpillars that destroy our shade and 
fruit trees; that our quails and sparrows consume 
annually hundreds of tons of seeds of noxious weeds ; 
that hawks and owls as a class (excepting the few 
that kill poultry and game birds) are markedly bene- 
ficial, spending their lives in catching grasshoppers, 
mice, and other pests that prey upon the products of 
husbandry." He secured fifty-one reservations where 
the wild birds on the wing might find a refuge. 

Governor Roosevelt, in a letter to Mr. Frank H. 
Chapman of the Audubon Society, who had thanked 
him for signing a bill protecting birds, thus expressed 
his value of them: 

Half, and more than half, the beauty of the woods and 
fields is gone when they lose the harmless wild things, 
while if we could only ever get our people to the point 
of taking a universal and thoroughly intelligent interest 
in the preservation of game birds and fish, the result would 
be an important addition to our food supply. Ultimately, 
people are sure to realize that to kill off all game birds 
and net out all fish streams is not much more sensible than 
it would be to kill off all our milch cows and brood mares. 

As for the birds whose preservation is the special object 
of your Society, we should keep them just as we keep 
trees. They add indispensably to the wholesome beauty 
of life. I would like to see all harmless wild things, but 
especially all birds, protected in every way. I do not under- 
stand how any man or woman who really loves nature can 
fail to try to exert all influence in support of such objects 



NATURALIST AND AUTHOR 221 

as those of the Audubon Society. Spring would not be 
spring without bird songs, any more than it would be 
spring without buds and flowers, and I only wish that be- 
sides protecting the songsters, the birds of the grove, the 
orchard, the garden and the meadow, we could also protect 
the birds of the seashore and of the wilderness. 

The loon ought to be, and, under wise legislation, could 
be a feature of every Adirondack lake; ospreys, as every 
one knows, can be made the tamest of the tame, and terns 
should be as plentiful along our shores as swallows around 
our .barns. A tanager or a cardinal makes a point of glow- 
ing beauty in the green woods and the cardinal among the 
white snows. When the bluebirds were so nearly destroyed 
by the severe winter a few seasons ago, it was like the 
loss of an old friend, or at least like the burning down ot 
a familiar and dearly loved house. How immensely it 
would add to our forests if only the logcock were still 
found among them ! 

The destruction of the wild pigeon and the Carolina paro- 
quet has meant a loss as severe as if the Catskills or the 
Palisades were taken away. When I hear of the destruc- 
tion of a species I feel just as if all the works of some 
great writer had perished ; as if we had lost all instead of 
only part of Polybius or Livy. 

At my request, Mr. John M. Parker, a manufaeturer 
of New Orleans, himself a passionate lover of birds, 
wrote for me the following: 

It has been my privilege to know Colonel Theodore Roose- 
velt intimately for a great many years, not only in Wash- 
ington, at his home at Sagamore Hill, but on hunting trips 
in Louisiana and Mississippi, and on investigation trips of 
the bird islands in the Gulf of Mexico. No more versatile 
man ever lived. There was hardly a subject of discussion 
on which he was not well posted, and on the numerous 
railroad and other trips made with him, his tireless energy 
and activity were shown by the fact that he was never 
idle and that when he read he remembered with that won- 
derful mind of his which seemed instantly to grasp essen- 
tials and never forgot. He was a most omniverous reader. 

As a naturalist and lover of animals, his intimate knowl- 



222 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

edge was a surprise to all of those who were thrown In 
close contact with him. Time after time have I seen this 
illustrated, and never more strikingly than at my home at 
Pass Christian, where we found twenty-seven different va- 
rieties of bird nests in the yard, among which was that 
of a crested flycatcher. This bird had already hatched and 
with its young was in the yard. The Colonel asked whether 
I had ever made a careful examination of the nest of this 
bird, as he had never failed to find a snake skin in the 
hollow which they invariably select for their nest. My 
reply was, "No, but let's look at this one and see what's 
in it," and to his great delight when I pulled out the 
straws and feather, there were two snake skins. 

When he made his trip around the various bird islands, 
men who were naturalists and who had known bird life 
for years were amazed at his intimate knowledge, not only 
of every species of birds which we found, but as to their 
nests, their habits, and even the number of eggs they laid. 

He was a splendid woodsman, had an excellent knowledge 
of direction and was at his best in camp. There was not 
a single trip on which he did not endear himself to every 
one, and his thoroughly democratic manner made these 
trips a pleasure to him and a delight to those who had 
the privilege of being a member of the party. 

In every sense of the word he was one of the cleanest 
men I ever knew. He was utterly incapable of a dishonest 
thought; he was an American to the core, and his splendid 
patriotic life should be an inspiration for generations to 
come. 



HERCULES CONTINUED— HUNTER- 
EXPLOREE^PROGRESSIVE 



CHAPTER XVII 

HERCULES' CONTINUED— HUNTER 
EXPLORER— PROGRESSIVE 

THE ninth miracle of Theodore Roosevelt was 
his record as a mighty hunter. Hercules ex- 
celled in the chase; he put an arrow through 
the heart of a deer, and killed a lion with his club 
now and then; but as a hunter of big game he was 
an amateur when compared with Roosevelt, It is a 
rule of human nature and of history that the greatest 
workers have also been the most enthusiastic at play. 
Roosevelt 's hunting trips were both a rest and a tonic 
to him in his great achievements. 

The magnitude of the hunting spirit in him can be 
seen in the fact that eight books, or almost one-fourth 
of all that he wrote, are devoted to hunting or game. 
How proud he was as a boy at Harvard when he 
killed his first deer in the Adirondacks, and of it3 
head which he put up in his room as a trophy. He 
tells this story of the killing of his first grizzly as 
recorded by Halstead in his life of Roosevelt : 

When in the middle of the thicket we crossed what was 
almost a breastwork of fallen logs, and Merrifleld, who was 
leading, passed by the upright stem of a great pine. As 
soon as he was by it, he sank suddenly on one knee, turn- 
ing half-round, his face fairly aflame with excitement; 

225 



226 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

and as I strode past him, with my rifle at the ready, there, 
not ten steps off, was the great bear, slowly rising from 
his bed among the great spruces. He had heard us, but 
apparently hardly knew exactly where or what we were, 
for he reared up on his haunches sideways to us. Then 
he saw us and dropped down again on all fours, the shaggy 
hair on his neck and shoulders seemed to bristle as he 
turned toward us. As he sank down on his forefeet I had 
raised the rifle; his head was bent slightly down, and when 
I saw the top of the white head fairly between his small 
glittering evil eyes I pulled the trigger. 

Half rising up, the huge beast fell over on his side in 
the death throes, the ball having gone into his brain, strik- 
ing fairly between the eyes as if the distance had been 
measured by a carpenter's rule. The whole thing was over 
in twenty seconds from the time I caught sight of the 
game; indeed, it was over so quickly that the grizzly did 
not have time to show fight at all or come a step toward 
us. It was the first I had ever seen, and I felt not a little 
proud, as I stood over the great brindled bulk, which lay 
stretched out at length in the cool shade of the evergreens. 
He was a monstrous fellow, much larger than any I have 
seen since, whether alive or brought in dead by the hunters. 
As near as we could estimate (for of course we had noth- 
ing with which to weigh more than very small portions) 
he must have weighed about twelve hundred pounds. 

After this he had more tragical experiences and 
narrow escapes, in one of which an angry beast rushed 
upon him so suddenly that, catching the limb of a 
tree, he swung over the back of the grizzly and thus 
saved his life. In his African Game Trails he gives 
this account of his killing of the first and second lions 
in one day: 

Right in front of me, thirty yards off, there appeared 
from behind the bushes which had first screened him from 
my eyes, the tawny, galloping form of a big maneless lion. 
Crack ! the Winchester spoke ; and as the soft-nosed bullet 
ploughed forward through his flank the lion swerved so that 
I missed him with the second shot ; but my third bullet 



HUNTER AND EXPLORER 227 

went through the spine and forward into his chest. Down 
he came, sixty yards ofif, his hind quarters dragging, his 
head up, his ears back, his jaws open and lips drawn up in 
a prodigious snarl, as he endeavored to turn to face us. 
His back was broken; but of this we could not at the 
moment be sure, and if it had merely been grazed, he might 
have recovered, and then, even though dying, his charge 
might have done mischief. So Kermit, Sir Alfred Pease, 
and I fired, almost together, into his chest. His head sank, 
and he died. 

He makes this mention also of tlie killing of the 
second lion that same day : 

I was still unable to see the lion when I knelt, but he 
was now standing up, looking first at one group of horses 
and then at the other, his tail lashing to and fro, his head 
held low, and his lips dropped over his mouth in peculiar 
fashion, while his harsh and savage growling rolled thun- 
derously over the plain. Seeing Simba and me on foot, 
he turned toward us, his tail lashing quicker and quicker. 
Resting my elbow on Simba's bent shoulder, I took steady 
aim and pressed the trigger; the bullet went in between 
the neck and shoulder, and the lion fell over on his side, 
one foreleg in the air. He recovered in a moment and stood 
up, evidently very sick, and once more faced me, growling 
hoarsely. I think he was on the eve of charging. I fired 
again at once, and this bullet broke his back just behind 
the shoulders; and with the next I killed him outright, 
after we had gathered round him. 

R. J. Cunningham, Colonel Roosevelt's hunting 
companion in East Africa, tells this story of the kill- 
ing of a huge elephant: 

The Colonel was determined to get an elephant, and a 
tusker at that. I told him what that meant, and how much 
risk there was, but he said he was willing to face it. Well, 
we found an elephant in a forest on Genia Mountain. We 
had been hunting for three days, and it was really hard 
work for a man of the Colonel's bulk in that heat and at 
that altitude, 11,000 feet. At last I caught sight through 
a thick bHsh of an elephant hide and tusk, about thirty-five 



228 THEODOEE ROOSEVELT 

feet away, just enough to tell me it was a fine specimen. 
I pointed it out to the Colonel, and he fired with complete 
coolness and got the elephant in the ear and dropped him. 
As the shot went off the forest all around roared with 
trumpetings. We were in the midst of a herd of cows and 
young bulls, and one of the latter thrust his head through 
the bushes right over the Colonel's head. 1 was right 
behind him and fired at once and bowled it over. Then 
I rushed up to the Colonel and said: "Are you all right, 
sir?" But I could see he was before I spoke. He hadn't 
turned a hair. At any moment the cows might have blun- 
dered through the bush over us, but he never thought of 
that. He went up to the old chap he had killed and gave 
it the coup-dc-grd.ce, and then let himself loose. I never 
saw a man so boyishly jubilant. 

With the utmost courage, with his companions he 
hunted . and slew the most dangerous wild beasts 
known to man, such as lions, rhinos, buffalos, ele- 
phants, and leopards. Some of his experiences were 
thrilling and the escapes narrow. We have in out 
family a trophy of this African hunting trip, a paper- 
knife made out of the skin of one of the rhinos Mr. 
Roosevelt killed himself, which he sent as a wedding 
present to our daughter with a beautiful letter ol 
congratulation written in his own tiny handwriting. 
The knife looks exactly as though it were made of 
yellow celluloid. 

Colonel Eoosevelt went to Africa,' not only as a 
hunter of big game, but also as a lover of nature and 
an explorer, to secure scientific facts for permanent 
record. 

Primarily he went out under the auspices of the 
Smithsonian Institution at Washington to secure spe- 
cimens of fauna and flora of that continent, and our 
Hercules planned the expedition in great magnitude, 
taking with him as companions scientific men to col- 
lect, secure, prepare and transport these specimens. 



HUNTER AND EXPLORER 229 

Besides he had an army of between three and four 
hundred savages. The nature and extent of the ex- 
pedition of this modern Hercules can be seen by the 
following official report to the government : 

Khartum, March 15, 1910. 
To the Hon. Charles Walcott, Secretary of the Smithsonian: 

Sib: I have the honor to report that the Smithsonian 
African expedition wtiich was entrusted to my charge has 
now completed its work. Full reports will be made later 
by the three naturalists, Messrs. Mearns, Heller and Lor- 
ing. I send this preliminary statement to summarize what 
has been done; the figures given are substantially accurate, 
but may have to be changed slightly in the final reports. 

We landed at Mombasa on April 21, 1909, and reached 
Khartum on March 21, 1910. On landing we were joined 
by Messrs. R. J. Cunningham and Leslie J. Tarlton; the 
former was with us throughout our entire trip, the latter 
until we left East Africa, and both worked as zealously and 
eflBciently for the success of the expedition as any other 
member thereof. 

We spent eight months in British East Africa. We col- 
lected carefully in various portions of the Athi and Kapiti 
plains, in the Sotik and round Lake Naivasha. Messrs. 
Mearns and Loring made a thorough biological survey of 
Mt. Kenia while the rest of the party skirted its western 
base, went to and up the Guaso Nyero, and later visited 
the Guas Ngishu region and both sides of the Rift valley. 
Messrs. Kermit Roosevelt and Tarlton went to the Laikipia 
Plateau and Lake Hamington, and Dr. Mearns and Mr. 
Kermit Roosevelt made separate trips to the coast region 
near Mombasa. On December 19th the expedition left East 
'Africa, crossed "Uganda and went down the White Nile. 

North of Wadelai we stopped and spent over three weeks 
in Lado, and from Gondokoro Mr. Kermit Roosevelt and I 
again crossed into the Lado, spending eight or ten days 
in the neighborhood of Rejaf. At Gondokoro we were met 
by the steamer which the Sirdar, with great courtesy, had 
put at our disposal. On the way to Khartum we made 
collections at Lake No and on the Bahr-el-Ghazel and Bar- 
el-Zeraf. We owe our warmest thanks for the generous 
courtesy shown us and the aid freely given us not only 



230 THEODOEE ROOSEVELT 

by the Sirdar, but by all the British officials in East Africa, 
Uganda and the Sudan and by the Belgian officials in the 
Lado, and this, of course, means we are also indebted to 
the home governments of England and Belgium. 

On the trip Mr. Heller has prepared 1,020 specimens of 
mammals, the majority of large size; Mr. Loring has pre- 
pared 3,1G3 and Dr. Mearns 714, a total of 4,897 mammals. 
Of birds, Dr. Mearns has prepared nearly 3,100, Mr. Loring 
899 and Mr. Heller about 50, a total of about 4,000 birds. 
Of reptiles and batrachians, Messrs. Mearns, Loring and 
Heller collected about 2,000. Of fishes, about 500 were 
collected. Dr. Mearns collected marine fishes near Mom- 
basa and fresh water fishes elsewhere in British East Africa, 
and .he "and Cunningham collected fishes in the White 
Nile. This makes in all of vertebrates: Mammals, 4,897; 
birds, about 4,000; reptiles and batrachians, about 2,000; 
fishes, about 500; total, 11,397. 

The invertebrates were collected carefully by Dr. Mearns, 
[ with some assistance from Messrs. Cunningham and Ker- 
, mit Roosevelt. 

A few marine shells were collected near Mombasa and 
land and freshwater shells throughout the regions visited, 
as well as crabs, beetles, millipeda and other invertebrates. 
Several thousand plants were collected throughout the re- 
gions visited by Dr. Mearns, who employed and trained 
for the work a Wunyamuezi named Makangarri, who soon 
learned how to make very good specimens and turned out 
an excellent man in every way. 

Anthropological materials were gathered by Dr. Mearns 
♦vith some assistance from others; a collection was con- 
tributed by Major Ross, an American in the government 
service at Nairobi. 

I have the honor to be, 

Very truly yours, 

Theodore Roosevelt. 

In 1913 Mr. Roosevelt made a tour of South Amer- 
ica in the interest of literature and political science. 
And in 1914 he went back to South America to deliver 
some lectures and make a tour of explorations which 
he had had in mind for years seeking the undiscovered 



HUNTER AND EXPLORER 231 

portion of the River of Doubt. He explored the River 
of Doubt for six hundred miles, placing it distinctly 
upon the map of the world for the first time, for the 
iungles were so thick that often the exploring party 
had to cut their path through with axes and the 
region was so deadly that it is said no white man can 
live in it. The hero feared nothing, dared every dan- 
ger, in his determination to find the great geograph- 
ical fact. In recognition of this discovery the Brazil- 
ian government renamed the river, ''Rio Teodore" 
(Theodore River). 

Tenth — Mr. Roosevelt after his African hunting 
trip addressed some of the greatest universities of the 
world, including those of Oxford, Cambridge, Paris, 
Berlin, and received honorary degrees from Cairo, 
Christiana, Oxford, Cambridge and Berlin. One of 
the greatest wonders of the world was the manner 
in which the audiences, composed of the most distin- 
guished men of the nations, listened to his messages 
and the credit they gave him for reliable scientific 
information on the subjects which he treated. His 
courage led him to say many things at right angles 
to the sentiment felt by the hosts — as when he re- 
buked race suicide in his address at the University 
at Paris. It was while on this trip that he made his 
celebrated address severely criticizing England's pol- 
icy in Egypt. 

Eleventh — He performed the miracle of the pro- 
gressive campaign. After serving out three years and 
one-half of President McKinley's unexpired term, Mr. 
Roosevelt was re-elected President of the United 
States in 19Q4 by the largest popular majority which 
had ever been given a candidate for that office. And 
retiring from his seven and one-half years of service 
he announced that he would make a hunting trip to 



232 THEODORE EOOSEVELT 

Africa and collect specimens for the Smithsonian In- 
stitution, In response to a letter protesting that such 
a trip had in it so many perils that I hoped he would 
not make it, and insisting that a life so valuable as 
his to his country should not be subjected to such 
extraordinary perils, he wrote me that there were 
several reasons for his trip. He had long desired such 
a hunting trip for big game ; and he was also anxious 
to gather scientific data with reference to the animal 
and plant life of that continent. 

He said that he had been instrumental in the nom- 
ination and election of Mr. Taft and that he thought 
it would be a fair thing to the new administration, 
and to the people who had elected it, to get out of 
the country and a long way from it and leave no 
grounds for believing that he had anything whatever 
to do with the administration. 

On -his return from the hunting trip in Africa the 
reception accorded him was one of the most stupen- 
dous and glorious ever given to any man. But he 
found that the Republican party was getting into a 
snarl, that the insurgents were increasing in number 
and influence. He refused to take sides openly for 
quite a while, but at last sided with the insurgents 
and became the candidate of that faction for the nom- 
ination for the Presidency in 1912 against President 
Taft, making his famous statement, "My hat is in 
the ring." 

The party machinery, however, was in the hands 
of the regular faction, and in the seating of contest- 
ing delegations, the Republican National Committee 
created a majority for Mr. Taft. The insurgents 
left the convention hall in Chicago in a body and went 
over to the Orchestra Hall, where the Progressive 
party was officially organized as a protest against the 




©Underwood & rn.Urwund. N. Y. 



ROOSEVELT, THE AMERICAN, AMID AMERICA'S RUGGED GRANDEUR, 
YOSEMITE, SPRING OF 1903. 



HUNTER AND EXPLORER 233 

action of the Republican committee. This was in 
June. 

The fifth day of August was set as the time for a 
national Progressive convention, and at that conven- 
tion Theodore Roosevelt was named for the Presi- 
dency, to run against Mr. Wilson, Governor of New 
Jersey, leading the Democrats, and Taft, running to 
succeed himself. 

Toward the close of Mr. Roosevelt's administration 
I said to the President, "Hosts of friends over the 
country want you to run again ; your hold upon the 
leadership of the Republican party is absolute. Your 
closest friends want to know whether you desire to 
run again." He replied, *'I meant exactly what I 
said the night I was elected, that I would not be a 
candidate to succeed myself. I have had all the honor 
there is in the office, I have accomplished much of 
what I undertook to do, and the people have treated 
me with such consideration and affection that I am 
willing now to yield my office to some one else. ' * He 
continued, "Besides, I am very, very fond of nature, 
and would like to pursue extensively my nature study. 
I am very, very fond of reading and of writing books. 
T should like to spend some solid years in the field of 
literature. I am very fond of hunting and would 
like to have longer periods of rest and recreation in 
that way. No, I shall not run again. I am positive 
on that subject, and you are welcome to say to all the 
boys that are closest to you that I am in earnest and 
will not take the nomination." 

- . Then he paused, and with a voice somewhat softened 
he said, "1 will tell you this in strictest confidence. 
There is only one condition under which I could ever 
be induced to enter the race for the Presidency 
again." Deeply anxious, I inquired, "And what ia 



234 THEODORE EOOSEVELT 

that?" He answered, "Frankly this. If the Repub- 
lican party were ever to go back on the progressive 
policies which are so necessary to the highest pros- 
perity of the country, and to which I have devoted 
my life, if it should become necessary I might be 
compelled to take the field again and try to keep the 
party in the right track. I do not expect any such 
condition to arise. I have every reason to believe 
that the leaders of the party recognize the wisdom 
and the virtue of the policies for which the party 
now stands; that they wiU not reverse it and invite 
party defeat and national injury. I do not want it 
to occur. If things go well, as I fully expect them 
to do, I shall give the rest of my life up to the pur- 
suits and joys of civil life, at the same time doing 
everything in my power for the happiness and pros- 
perity of my fellow-countrymen." 

Seated on the porch at Sagamore Hill after the 
Progressive convention had been held in Chicago in 
August, 1912, he called my attention to what he had 
said to me in the White House, and said, "Precisely 
the thing I had hoped would not occur has occurred, 
and I feel compelled under the circumstances to enter 
the field again." I said to him, "I am so sorry you 
did not get the nomination of the Republican conven- 
tion. You no doubt felt justified in running inde- 
pendently as a protest against what you counted a 
wrong, but to me the chances for your success seem 
slim. The Republican party that has ruled the coun- 
try for fifty years is split in two. The Democrats 
are strong. You have no press, no party organization, 
no party history, no party loyalty to begin with, 
•where millions of votes are required. But I intend to 
follow you in this new movement. It breaks my heart 
to sever party ties, but I have found you right and 



HUNTER AND EXPLORER 235 

safe as a leader and I am going in the boat with you. 
I do not know where I am going, but I know I am 
going somewhere, and I am going somewhere mighty 
fast." 

At this he broke out into a loud, hearty laugh and 
said, "Right you are, my friend, we are all going 
somewhere, and we are going there mighty fast. ' ' 

"Now tell me," I continued, "for you can see so 
much further than the rest, is there a ghost of a 
chance of winning out?" 

"It is so early in the contest," he replied, "that it 
is impossible to foretell with any certainty, but I con- 
sider we have a fighting chance." 

*'Will you get a single electoral vote?" I asked. 

"Oh, yes," he said, "a good many of them." He 
continued, "The race is between Wilson and myself; 
if Wilson shall lead me I will be a very decent 
second." And so he was with his four million, one 
hundred and twenty-six thousand and twenty, to Mr. 
Wilson's six million, two hundred and eighty-six thou- 
sand, two hundred and fourteen votes, which was one 
of the most monumental personal victories any man 
ever had. 

During this campaign perhaps the most heroic act 
of his life was performed. It was when he made a 
speech of half-an-hour 's length just after he had been 
shot by an assassin in Milwaukee, October 14, 1912. 
John Schrank, who had followed him from city to 
city with the intention of killing him, waited for 
the Colonel's car at the depot in Milwaukee, and as 
he was about to enter an automobile to go to the 
meeting, pointed a pistol at his heart. Just then the 
crowd commenced to yell, "Hello, Teddy!" and the 
Colonel threw up his hand in recognition, as was his 
custom, raising the gun out of its course, which sent 



236 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

the bullet through his spectacle case in his breast- 
pocket, through the manuscripts of several speeches 
which he had in his pocket, the web of his suspenders, 
and was deflected from his heart, which would cer- 
tainly have been pierced had it not been for the wave 
of the Colonel's hand. 

Of course the friends insisted on driving the Colonel 
to a hospital and calling the meeting off. He would 
not listen to the proposition, but ordered the chauf- 
feur to drive to the hall at once. When he came upon 
the platform of the hall his friends fairly fought him 
to keep him from making his speech, but he waved 
them back with his strong arms and said he would 
make the speech and that the wound could be looked 
after later. He would not even allow a surgeon to 
examine the wound. He began his speech by saying, 
"Ladies and gentlemen, you will pardon me if I cut 
my remarks somewhat short, as the fact is I have 
been shot." Some people laughed and some jeered, 
and most of them were startled beyond measure at the 
announcement. In the part of the speech referring 
to himself he said: 

"I do not care a rap about being shot, not a rap. 
The bullet is in me now, so that I cannot make a very 
long speech. But I will try my best. First of all I 
want to say this about myself. I have altogether too 
many important things to think of to pay any heed or 
feel any concern over my own death. Now I would 
not speak to you insincerely within five minutes of 
being shot. I am telling you the literal truth when 
I say that my concern is for many other things. 

"I want you to understand that I am ahead of 
the game anyway. No man has had a happier life 
than I have had — a happy life in every way. I have 
been able to do certain things that I greatly wished 



HUNTER AND EXPLORER 237 

to do, and I am interested in doing other things." 
His voice became somewhat weak at the last, but he 
finished the speech as he had intended to make it. 
The annals of human heroism scarcely furnished a 
parallel to this, standing in his shoes full of blood 
and delivering a speech to the living which in all 
possibility or probability would be his death message. 
This one act of heroism equals all of the labors of the 
ancient Hercules put together. 

When the World War came into view, feeling the 
necessity of dropping all partisan considerations, he 
returned to the Republican party, rolling up his 
eleeves and working vigorously for Mr, Hughes for 
the Presidency. He said to me that he never al- 
lowed any personal grievance to interfere with his 
actions for the public good, and that as the life of 
the nation was at stake he buried all grievances and 
was willing to take the hand of fellowship of those 
who had prevented his nomination. And the very 
men who had "steam-rollered" him joined with the 
progressive faction of the party in entrusting to his 
hands the national leadership of the Republican 
party. It is a question which is the greater victory, 
to have made such a record as a progressive candi- 
date or to have manifested the magnanimity which he 
did toward those in his party who had opposed him 
so bitterly. 

Mr. Roosevelt, while a strict partisan, was above 
all a patriot. When he headed the Progressive ticket 
many Democrats voted for him. As a rule the rank 
and file of the Democrats of this country always had 
the highest respect for Mr. Roosevelt and large num- 
bers of them loved him. At the time of his death the 
Democrats of the nation seemed to have suffered as 
deep sorrow as the Republicans. 



238 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

Twelve — ^He was a giant in the World's War. 
Theodore Roosevelt was responsible for stirring up the 
national spirit in the only wars we have had since 
Lincoln 's time, the Spanish- American and the present 
World War. More than any other man, he realized 
that the devastation of Belgium and the sinking of 
the Lusitania were crimes against humanity and our 
own government and demanded that they be avenged 
at whatever cost. His tremendous intellect caused the 
nation, which desired peace and was determined to 
have it, to realize that there was a just cause for war 
for the preservation of the honor and life of our own 
nation and the liberty and peace of the world. He 
showed his patriotic faith by his work in giving all 
he had to the success of this conflict, and in one of 
his last messages to the public he said, "There is 
room in this country for but one flag." 

The Hercules of mythology had his faults, but the 
world has not time or disposition to look or dwell 
upon them. It only remembers his mighty power, Ms 
rugged virtue and his love and service for his 
country. 

Theodore Roosevelt had his faults, certainly he did, 
for he was human ; only one man ever lived who was 
without fault, and He was God. It was the singularly 
human element, that was liable to err, that made him 
so immensely popular. A faultless angel could never 
have gotten elected to any office which Colonel Roose- 
velt ever filled. The people want some one like them- 
selves, capable of getting mad once in a while when 
it is necessary, and of fighting desperately when a 
just cause arises. 

It must be remembered, however, that the things 
that were most severely criticized in him, and which 
his closest friends regretted at the time, proved to 



HUNTER AND EXPLORER 239 

be the strongest points in his plans and administra- 
tion. When he fought the encroachments of the 
money power two-thirds of the people thought he was 
driving the nation into bankruptcy. But the people 
soon learned that he was right, and the rich men 
themselves said he must go to the front again to save 
the nation from financial collapse. When everybody 
was for peace he was for war. After a while the 
nation found that he was right and it was wrong 
and followed his advice. Most men saw only one 
little section of the truth, but he had eyes with which 
he saw around the whole sphere of truth. 

He had faults to be sure, but I was so close to him 
that I did not see them. He had such a superb per- 
sonality that I did not stop to see whether he had a 
twisted little finger nail on his left hand or a mole 
on his neck. I have not dwelt on his faults; others 
will likely do that. Some critics may not have their 
intellect colored with love as mine is ; some biograph- 
ers may have a muck rake in their hand ; some may be 
so prejudiced that they will underestimate him ; some 
will be brutally frank, like Froude in writing of 
Carlyle, and become his slanderers rather than biog- 
raphers, but the Theodore Roosevelt I knew had so 
many strong points and so many virtues that I only 
have space for these in this record. 

Hercules was a very devout man. He was poisoned 
to death by accident in the very act of worship. Real- 
izing that he had to die he called upon Jupiter for 
protection. He then coolly prepared for his exit from 
the world. He erected a large funeral pile on ]\Iount 
Oeta, and calmly directed Philoctetes to set it on fire 
when he had ascended it. Jupiter, with the approba- 
tion of the gods, suddenly surrounded the pile with 
smoke, and Hercules, after his mortal parts were 



240 THEODOKE KOOSEVELT 

totally consumed, was carried up to heaven in a char- 
iot drawn by four horses, amidst peals of thunder, 
and his friends raised an altar where the burning 
pile had stood. His worship became general, and his 
temples, which were scattered everywhere, were the 
most magnificent that could be found in the world. 

Colonel Koosevelt, quite a while ago, picked out the 
place in the little cemetery near Sagamore Hill where 
his mortal remains should lie. I went out to visit the 
grave of my friend the other day. Close by the grave 
was a little tent used by the returned soldier boys of 
Oyster Bay, who guarded this precious dust. The 
young men told me that on one occasion 5,000 had 
visited the grave in one day, and that John Bur- 
roughs, the celebrated naturalist, and Bill Sewall, Mr. 
Roosevelt's guide and life-long hunting companion, 
had visited the grave with deep emotion; and that a 
representative of the Japanese government had a few 
days before gone through some ceremony of religious 
worship and had craved the privilege of carrying a 
handful of dust, as a sacred relic, back to his home 
in Japan. The flowers were all faded, the frames that 
held them were exposed, but their story was there; 
there was the wreath of the Eougli Riders of the 
West, one of a colored church in the South, one from 
a French general tied with a French flag, one from 
his brother Masons, one from the President of the 
United States, and just under it was a bunch of 
pussy willows picked by the little children of the 
Cove School. The faded flowers and leaves were sym- 
bols only of the mortal part that rested in the tomb. 
The spirit of Theodore Roosevelt was taken to heaven 
in the chariot of righteousness. The evergreens in 
the cemetery lot, untouched by the frost and snow, 
were but the symbol of his immortality. While stand- 



HUNTER AND EXPLORER 241 

ing there some voices were heard. This one from the 
great hero who gave the Christian civilization to 
Europe and America, "I have fought a good fight, I 
have finished my course, I have kept the faith : Hence- 
forth there is laid up for me a crown of righteous- 
ness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give 
me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all 
them also that love his appearing." And then came 
these words of his Master for whom he suffered 
martyrdom, ''In my Father's house are many man- 
sions : if it were not so, I would have told you. I go 
to prepare a place for you. And if I go and pre- 
pare a place for you, I will come again, and receive 
you unto Myself; that where I am, there ye may be 
also." 



SAGAMORE HILL 






I 



CHAPTER XVIII 
SAGAMORE HILL 

THE other day I motored out to Sagamore Hill ; 
the visit was very different from earlier ones. 
The house was closed, the children had gone out 
into life, the wife who had so much to do with the 
character, happiness and success of her husband had 
gone to France to visit the grave of Quentin. As I 
came up the hill a feeling of insufferable sadness 
came over me. As I looked at the vacant house from 
which the strong man had gone and the stillness of 
the house, once the home of about the happiest and 
liveliest family in America, my eyes moistened. I 
felt that I should never see the face of my friend 
again, or enjoy his sweet companionship in that house 
and on that porch. But suddenly the spirit of Roose- 
velt came to me— that of courage and hope. And a 
light shown about me and I felt that the ground on 
which I stood was holy ground, because it had been 
sanctified by his footsteps. I did not feel so much 
like crying as I did like singing a psalm of thanks- 
giving that he had ever come into my life and that the 
world had been so blessed by him. I stopped at the 
old elm tree at the corner of the porch which the Col- 
onel loved almost as a person, and through whose 

245 



246 THEODOKE EOOSEVELT 

beauty and refreshment he so often communed with 
his Maker. He loved it so dearly, and was so afraid 
that the storms might hurt it, that he had the great 
lower branches fastened with iron stays. He called 
it his weeping elm. 

I went around to the other side of the house and 
looked down into the thick woods where he went so 
often to chop. And I seemed to hear the strokes of 
his axe and the crash of the tall tree as it fell. I 
looked down into the field in which he worked at har- 
vest time as vigorously as any of his farmhands and 
thought of how he used to toss the hay with his strong 
arms up to the man on the top of the wagon. I saw 
the cows in the pasture of which he was so fond. I 
breathed the perfume of the flowers that were so de- 
licious to him, and listened to the song of the birds 
that knew him and gave him a continuous serenade. 
I went down to the stable and there met a very re- 
markable character, the Colonel's chauffeur, Charles 
Lee. I knew how much Colonel Roosevelt trusted and 
loved him and I said to him, *'I know a good many 
things about Mr. Eoosevelt, but you were with him 
so much that I thought you might tell me some things 
about him I had never heard. ' ' 

He said to me, "You need not introduce yourself 
to me, for I have seen you and the Colonel 'together 
so often and I will gladly tell you something about 
him. " * * Come indoors, ' ' he said, * * and sit down and I 
will talk to you." I said to him, "This piece of board 
that comes out from the wall on the porch is about 
the right width and height for a writing table, and 
so if you will give me a chair I will sit down here 
and make notes on this writing tablet, which I desire 
to put into the book I am writing on the Colonel. ' * 

He went into the garage and came out with a chair 



SAGAMORE HILL 247 

in his hand and set it down by this improvised writ- 
ing-desk, and as he did so said, "We will begin with 
the chair in which you are seated. That was the 
Colonel's favorite study chair. In it he did much of 
his reading and writing ; I think it was the last chair 
in which he sat downstairs. He said a little while 
before his death, 'Lee, you have been with me a long 
time and a true friend ; I am going to give you my 
chair that I love so well, to remember me by.' And 
that is the chair. It is precious to me. There is not 
money enough in the Oyster Bay bank to buy it." 
"Lee, how long were you with the Colonel?" I asked. 
"Seventeen years," he replied. Then I said, "You 
were a lucky man and a rich man to have been so 
close to so great and good a man for such a length of 

time." 

He answered, "I certainly appreciate my oppor- 
tunities and blessings in my relation to him. My 
emplojTnent with him began while he was in the 
White House. I was counted quite a driver of horses, 
and he selected me as his coachman, for they used 
horses more than cars at that time. I drove a carriage 
and two horses, except once a year when I drove four 
horses— on Inauguration Day." I said, "Do you 
mean to say that you drove him in his carriage on 
Inauguration Day?" "I certainly did," he replied, 
* ' I had four fine black horses and I was the proudest 
man in Washington as I drove the President that 
day " "Well, then," I said, "you know something 
about horses." "Let's go back into the stable here 
and look at some of the horses." He took me out and 
showed me a line of empty stalls, saying with a sad 
voice, "The man that rode them is gone, and it made 
Mrs. Roosevelt so sad as she looked at the horses the 
Colonel loved so well that we sold them all. 



248 THEODOEE ROOSEVELT 

* ' Mr. Roosevelt was devoted to his horses ; he was a 
splendid rider — sat to the saddle perfectly — had easy 
control of his horse and enjoyed riding, as a sport 
and exercise, amazingly. It was his custom to go 
riding about every morning at ten o'clock and the 
madam rode with him. He never seemed so happy as 
when he was with Mrs. Roosevelt, and never happier 
than when they went out together on these morning 
rides which lasted usually a couple of hours. While 
at Washington, the President did a large amount of 
cross-country riding; in fact, he went regularly in 
the mornings. The landowners had given him the 
right of way to cross their fields and woods at will, 
and so he started out and jumped the fences and the 
little streams and galloped over every obstacle. He 
had three fine jumpers down there, their names were 
Blinestine, Rusty and Ordgy. Blinestine was one of 
the finest jumpers in America. He had as much, fun 
in getting over the high fences as the rider did — and 
that was a good deal. All the horses loved their owner, 
but this greatest jumper loved the very ground he 
walked on, and would not let him get out of his sight 
if he could help it. The President would get off of 
Blinestine and the horse would follow him every- 
where. He would not even stop to nip grass if he 
could have a chance to be with the Colonel. ' ' 

"You said you sold all these horses and these stalls 
are empty?" I said. "How about this little pony 
in the stall?" "Oh," said he, "that is the pony the 
boys rode and loved. He seems like a member of the 
family. Mrs. Roosevelt will keep him as long as he 
lives in memory of the children and the good times he 
gave them. While all the boys rode him he belonged 
to Archie. There is this funny story about him. 
Archie was quite sick at the White House. His 



SAGAMORE HILL 249 

younger brother Quentin thought that a look at Al- 
gonquin, which was the name of the pony, would do 
him good. And so he got him on the dumbwaiter, 
hoisted him up to the story where Archie was, and 
walked the pony into the room. It is said that the 
visit of the pony did the sick boy as much good as 
a doctor or medicine. The pony is a perfect little 
beauty, covered with white spots. His long mane is as 
white as snow and soft as silk. He seemed to me to 
look sad, as thought he were half-acquainted with 
the tragedies that had befallen the boys since the days 
in which he had given them so much fun. It is said 
that after Quentin 's death the Colonel was found in 
this stall one day with his arms around the pony's 
neck crying like a child at the sad, sweet memories. 

"Where are those dogs that I used to read about 
and the Colonel used to talk so much about?" I 
asked. "The Colonel had five of them," he replied, 
"and every day, when he went out on his walk or to 
his chopping, he would call at the door and they all 
would come rushing gladly to him. They got to fuss- 
ing so much among themselves that the Colonel let 
them all go, but one black-and-tan terrier." "Is he 
around?" I asked. And he called, "Shady! Shady! 
Come here, Shady!" And the little fellow, looking 
every inch a thoroughbred, came close to my chair 
and treated me just as though he knew I were a 
friend of his master 's. 

The chauffeur said, "That little fellow followed the 
Colonel everywhere that he went. He never went to 
the woods, or for a walk, or for a bath that he did not 
go with him and stay with him till he returned. He 
was his bodyguard. It may be that he was afraid 
somebody would hurt him, and he would be there to 
defend him, but it is most likely that he just loved 



250 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

him as every creature did." "Let's look around the 
place a little," I suggested. And he pointed to the 
boxes on the trees and said, "The Colonel put them 
up as houses for the birds. You notice there a small 
one with a little hole in it for tiny birds. There is 
one there with the door for larger ones, and the one 
yonder you see is for birds that are still larger. You 
never saw a man in the world so fond of birds as he 
was. He fed them and talked with them and petted 
them just as though they were people." 

As we walked around to the front of the house at 
the corner opposite the elm tree, there was a large 
box with glass windows which was a shelter for many 
birds especially in winter. Mr. Roosevelt came out 
every day to that house and fed the birds. They 
seemed so happy as they flew in out of the cold, and 
stood on perches where they could lean against the 
glass and warm themselves in the sun. I stopped on 
the porch and looked down the grassy slope of the 
woods that skirted it and saw some of the same birds 
that he knew. I heard them sing the songs that made 
him so happy, and I thought of what he said in his 
autobiography about them. 

He had just returned from England where Sir Ed- 
ward Grey, the noted naturalist, had taken him on a 
long journey to a deep- forest, where they had counted 
over forty different species of birds and heard at least 
two-thirds of them sing. This is what he says "On 
the evening of the first day I sat in my rocking-chair 
on the broad veranda, looking across the sound to- 
ward the glory of the sunset. The thickly grassed 
hillside sloped down in front of me to a belt of forest 
from which rose the golden, leisurely chiming of the 
wood thrushes, chanting their vespers; through the 
still air came the warble of vireo and tanager; and 



SAGAMORE HILL 251 

after nightfall we heard the flight song of an ovenbird 
from the same belt of timber. Overhead an oriole 
sang in the weeping elm, now and then breaking his 
song to scold like an overgrown wren. Song-sparrows 
and catbirds sang in the shrubbery; one robin had 
built its nest over the front and one over the back 
door, and there was a chippy's nest in the wistaria 
vine by the stoop. During the next twenty-four hours 
I saw and heard, either right around the house or 
while walking down to bathe, through the woods, 
forty-two birds." And then he gave the names of 
them. 

I saw some children around the place who belonged 
to the home of the faithful gardener, Mr. Gillespie. 
They were very fond of the Colonel and had reason 
to be. They used to follow him down into the woods 
when he cut the big trees down. One day they were 
where he was at work and he said to them, * ' Children, 
gather up these chips and get some dry sticks and 
start a fire, then go get some potatoes and corn and 
roast them. That's the way my children did, and 
they had piles of fun." So they picked up the chips, 
started a fire, had their camp cooking, and enjoyed 
their meal. And when they had finished it, they 
said, "Mr. Roosevelt, we never had so much fun in 
our lives." At every Christmas time he called the 
Gillespie children to him and gave them a Christmas 
present, and he always asked their mother to find out 
what they wanted, and he got just exactly what they 
asked for. I was told this incident the day I was out 
at Sagamore Hill by one to whom the Colonel related 

it. 

One Christmas, the gardener's daughter, Isabel, six 
years old, sent in her request for a bowl of goldfish. 
The Colonel was afraid he would have difficulty in 



252 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

getting the fish out to Sagamore Hill in the winter 
time, and in time for Christmas, but he said that 
Isabel wanted it and she should have it if it was pos- 
sible for him to get- it. So he went to the store, 
bought the fish, selected the globe in which they were 
to swim, drew out his money to pay for them and 
said, "Just send them out to Sagamore Hill." 

The man gasped, "Why, Colonel, we can't. The 
water will freeze on the way out and kill them. ' ' The 
Colonel did not know what to do and said that in all 
of his perplexing problems that was one of the tough- 
est to solve. But he made up his mind that that 
little girl wanted the goldfish, and that his specialty 
in life had been to overcome obstacles. And so he 
had the man put the fish in the bowl, packed it around 
with him as he did the rest of his shopping and under 
difficulties at every step he managed to get Isabel's 
goldfish out home for Christmas. 

Colonel Roosevelt did not want to stay in the hos- 
pital this last Christmas, and so Lee took his car 
down and brought him home, and he said, * ' Oh, my 1 
How good it is to get home." And that very after- 
noon he sent for the four Gillespie children and gave 
them each a present with some kind words of greet- 
ing and advice, and the very presents they had asked. 

I saw some little troughs on the edge of the lawn 
in which water was put for the birds to drink. The 
Colonel made it a task of the Gillespie boy to fill these 
troughs with water each day. The little fellow did 
so, and on Sunday morning he saw a bright silver 
dime at the bottom of the water. He thought some- 
body had lost it and carried it to his mother. The 
next Sunday there was another dime in the trough. 
He wondered where it came from. And every Sun- 
day he found his dime. It may be that a little bird 



SAGAMORE HILL 253 

carried it there, or more likely an angel brought the 
silver piece from heaven and put it in the pool for 
the boy. Yes. It was an angel that did it, that lover 
and guardian of American childhood. 

The house was closed, but I knew what was inside of 
it, having felt the summer breezes that swept through 
it and having been cheered by the blazing logs in 
the fireplace in winter. I knew what wealth there 
was in the trophies, what numberless books adorned it, 
and what precious memories clustered about it. I 
thought of what the father of the house had said 
about children in his autobiography in these words: 
"Books are all very well in their way, and we have 
them at Sagamore Hill, but children are better than 
the books. There are many kinds of success in life 
worth having. It is exceedingly interesting and at- 
tractive to be a successful business man, or railroad 
man, or farmer, or a successful lawyer or doctor, or 
a writer, or a President, or a ranchman, or the colonel 
of a fighting regiment, or to kill grizzly bears and 
lions. But for unflagging interest and enjoyment, a 
household of children, if things go reasonably well, 
certainly makes all other forms of success and achieve- 
ment lose their importance by comparison." 

The story of the " 'spress" wagon came to mind, 
which is thus told in his autobiography: "In my 
rambles with the children, and when the very smallest 
pairs of feet grew tired of trudging bravely after us, 
or of racing on rapturous side trips after flowers and 
other treasures, the owners would clamber into the 
wagon. One of these wagons, by the way, a gorgeous 
red one, had 'Express' painted on it in gilt letters, 
and was known to the younger children as the 
* 'spress* wagon. They evidently associated the color 
with the term. Once while we were at Sagamore 



254 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

something happened to the cherished * 'spress' wagon 
to the distress of the children, and especially of the 
child who owned it. Their mother and I were just 
starting for a drive in the buggy, and we promised 
the bereaved owner that we would visit a store we 
knew iu East Norwich, a village a few miles away, 
and bring back another * 'spress' wagon. When we 
reached the store, we found to our dismay that the 
wagon which we had seen had been sold. We could 
not bear to return without the promised gift, for 
we knew that the brains of small persons are much 
puzzled when their elders seem to break promises. 
Fortunately, we saw in the store a delightful little 
bright-red chair and bright-red table, and these we 
brought home and handed solemnly over to the ex- 
pectant recipient, explaining that as there unfortu- 
nately was not a * 'spress' wagon we had brought him 
back a * 'spress' chair and * 'spress' table. It worked 
beautifully! The "spress' chair and table were re- 
ceived with such rapture that we had to get dupli- 
cates for the other small members of the family." 

As I stood under the weeping elm, I looked at the 
building, ample, comfortable, but not stately nor ex- 
travagant, and as I did so it seemed to turn into a 
castle of precious stones, reflecting their dazzling 
lustre and beauty. It was the love that founded it 
and lived in it that transformed it into the structure 
of unspeakable beauty. I thought of the young ranch- 
man and statesman who thirty-three years before mar- 
ried Miss Edith Kermit Carow in St. George's church, 
London, and brought her to this house and founded 
this home. The love that established and maintained 
this home was responsible for fully one-half of Theo- 
dore Roosevelt's greatness. In eight cases out of 
ten a true wife is half of a man's success in any call- 



SAGAMORE HILL 255 

ing in life. I felt that it was this home life with wife 
and children at Sagamore Hill, as much as anything 
else, which appealed to the American heart and made 
him the idol of the homes of the world. This castle 
of Sagamore Hill sparkled as jewels from the love 
within it, and also reflected the splendors of an upper 
world. I am sure he counted Sagamore Hill as the 
place where heaven and earth came closest together, 
where they actually touched. This home was a heaven 
on earth to the master ol this house. It is a splendid 
compliment to the virtue and conscience of the nation 
that the home on Sagamore Hill should ever be cher- 
ished as a sacred shrine. 

I looked up to the room where our dear friend died 
and the window out of which he flew away that cold 
winter morning, and I wondered whether Quentin 
did not come with his aeroplane for him to take him 
home. 






THEODORE ROOSEVELT'S SONS 



iiL 



CHAPTER XIX 
THEODORE ROOSEVELT'S SONS 

WITH the precept and example of such a 
father and mother it would naturally be ex- 
pected that Sagamore Hill would give an 
ideal family to the nation. So deeply did the great pa- 
triotic spirit of Theodore Roosevelt sink into the souls 
of the children, that all four of his sons, one of his 
sons-in-law and one of his daughters-in-law volun- 
teered in the service of their country in the world 
war, and the other son-in-law served his country as a 
member of Congress. The four sons — all that he had 
— went to the front at the earliest possible moment. 
All are Harvard men — kindly in spirit, game sports, 
good riders and sure shots, with splendid characters, 
intelligent Christian gentlemen; and fighters from 
way back. There would have been no rope strong 
enough to have kept those boys, raised on Sagamore 
Hill, out of the army. In each one was a love for his 
country stronger than his life. 

LIEUT.-COL. THEODORE ROOSEVELT, JR. 

Theodore, Jr., not only carries his father's name, 
but presents many of his father's characteristics. He 
is not as large as his father was toward the last, and 
wears no mustache, but in his facial expression, his 
movements, his warm hand-shake, his polite demeanor 
and mental virility he reminds one very much of his 
father. He was born in 1887. He went to Groton 

259 



260 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

Preparatory School and graduated at Harvard in 
1909. He is fond of sport, and accompanied his father 
on a number of hunting trips in the United States 
and in Canada, 

He married Miss Eleanor Alexander in June, 1910. 
They have three children — Grace Green, Theodore, 
Jr., and Cornelius Schaack. 

Like many of his New York City ancestors, Theodore, 
Jr., selected a business life. He first entered the mills 
of the Hartford Carpet Company ; did successful work 
there and went out to San Francisco to represent the 
same company. In 1912 he returned to New York, to 
join the firm of Bernard, Griscom & Company ; after 
two years with them he became a partner of Mont- 
gomery, Clothier & Tyler. 

Lieut.-Col. Theodore Roosevelt went to France as a 
Major, in command of the First Battalion, Twenty- 
sixth Infantry, with the first expeditionary forces in 
the summer of 1917. Later he was placed in command 
of the regiment with the rank of lieutenant-colonel. 
He was dangerously gassed, but fortunately was 
brought back to life. He was with his famous regi- 
ment in every battle until the last days oi the war, 
when he was wounded by a machine-gun bullet in the 
leg in the fierce fight in the Argonne Forest. He re- 
fused to be taken from the field, however, until his 
boys had cleaned out the enemy's machine-gun nest 
that was doing such murderous work. 

Then he was taken to the hospital, and at the earli- 
est moment of convalescence he insisted upon going 
back to the front with his regiment and remained with 
it until the signing of the armistice. 

He returned with his regiment from France early 
in March. He gave this unstinted praise to the New 
York and all the American troops: "No young man 



HIS SONS 261 

can go through the military work that all the drafted 
men have gone through and not be benefited by it. I 
have watched these New York men as I brought my 
own battalion up, and I have seen their baptism of 
shells and bullets on July 18 at Soissons, when they 
went in with the French at the time of Foch's first 
big offensive. I am delighted with the record the 
American troops have made and trust that in future 
we shall bear in mind, as a nation, that much could 
have been saved had we realized in time the necessity 
of proper preparedness." 

Young Col. Theodore Roosevelt, with the name, abil- 
ity and heroism of his father, attracted the attention 
of the nation, which saw in him a possible leader and 
servant of the people. In answer to an almost uni- 
versal call on the part of his father's friends, he re- 
solved to give up his business career and devote him- 
self to the service of the State. 

At a reception to him and his wife, who also served 
in France, at the Republican Club in New York City, 
Col. Roosevelt provoked a laugh and hearty cheer 
when he opened his remarks by saying, "It's bully 
to be home. " He said it was the first time he had 
spoken in public since he returned from France, and 
he was proud to speak before a body representing the 
party around which all the traditions of his family 
had been woven. He declared he was "delighted" to 
see so many ladies present. 

He told many amusing and serious incidents of the 
soldiers of his division in and out of the trenches. 
"While we experienced hard fighting in the Ar- 
gonne," he said, "most of our time was spent in the 
small villages back of the lines. Here the men slept 
in the barns on the hay lofts, with the pigs, cows and 
rabbits on the first floor. As the commander of the 



262 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

men I was supposed to get the best accommodation, 
but I slept in a room with a kindly-faced old cow tied 
to the thin partition between my billet and the adjoin- 
ing apartment When the cow slept, I slept, and when 
she was wakeful, I was wakeful, too. The old French 
woman at whose house we were quartered complained 
that the men in the barn made so much noise at night 
that the pigs and rabbits could not sleep. " " Rabbits 
are good to eat, and they would disappear," he said; 
''but I know it was impossible for the men to have 
eaten as many rabbits as the old lady said." 

In the closing words of this address he spoke of the 
two years of clean living upon the part of the boys, 
and of their return to this country with characters 
unspoiled. He urged upon the people at home the 
necessities of aiding in every w^ay the permanent em- 
ployment of the men, and called upon all good citi- 
zens to throw around our former soldiers every moral 
safeguard to help them to lives of usefulness, happi- 
ness and honor. 

How like the father the young Colonel was, at the 
close of his address, drawing a practical moral lesson 
for the living. Scarcely a letter, magazine article or 
chapter in a book or message can be found in which 
his father did not either wind up with a splendid 
moral lesson for the living or carry it straight through 
from beginning to end. 

Col. Roosevelt's wife had the honor of being the 
first American woman sent out to war service by the 
Young Men's Christian Association. She began her 
work in the canteen in Paris and then was placed in 
charge of the leave-areas at Aix-le-Bain for our soldier 
boys. 

Speaking of the work among the American soldiers 
on leave in France, Mrs. Roosevelt said, "The first 



HIS SONS 263 

thing the workers did was to induce some of the hotel 
proprietors to open their hotels in the winter, four 
months ahead of time. They rented the Casino, one 
of the finest in Europe. We had to take the em- 
ployees, too," she said, "and among them was a gam- 
bling director, perhaps the only employee of that char- 
acter which the Y. M. C. A. ever had. I cannot say 
enough for the behavior of our men on leave. Their 
conduct was extremely good. A more decent, self- 
respecting body of men cannot be imagined. ' ' 

Some may have thought that Colonel Roosevelt 
was too young for any great responsibility, but it must 
be remembered that he entered public life three years 
older than his father was when he ran for the mayor- 
alty of New York, and one year older than his father 
when he took the great task of the Civil Service Com- 
missionership. His heroism and sufferings for the 
flag, his executive ability in the organization of the 
American Legion, composed of our soldiers of the 
world war, and his magnificent spirit in declining the 
presidency of the organization, which the members in- 
sisted upon forcing on him, saying that he would 
rather stay and be a booster than be the head of it, 
would have marked him as a natural leader of men 
if his name had been other than Roosevelt. Demo- 
crats as well as Republicans recognized his evident 
leadership, and he was received in New York as one 
to be admitted to the councils of the nation and 
worthy of any office he shoidd himself be willing to 
accept. 

CAPT. ARCHIBALD BULLOCK ROOSEVELT 

Capt. Archie Roosevelt is taller and slimmer than 
the other boys. He has many of his father's endow- 
ments and peculiarities, a bright eye, a strong grip 



264 THEODOKE ROOSEVELT 

and a kindly spirit. He was born in 1894, had his pre- 
liminary education at Groton and Andover and gradu- 
ated at Harvard in 1917. Previous to his graduation 
he had gone into the factory of the Hartford Carpet 
Company, the one in which his older brother had been 
employed. 

In 1917 he was married to Miss Grace Lockwood 
of Boston. They have one son, Archibald, Jr. Cap- 
tain Archie attended the Plattsburg Training School, 
was commissioned Second Lieutenant of Infantry, 
sailed for France in June, 1917, was commissioned in 
the Twenty-sixth Infantry, the one in which his 
brother, Theodore, was the Lieutenant-Colonel, was 
promoted to Captaincy and was severely wounded in 
the arm and knee in the Cantigny fighting. 

Captain Archie Roosevelt in a foreword to an ar- 
ticle in Everybody's Magazine for May, 1918, had this 
to say of his brothers and himself in the war : * ' All my 
brothers were in the thickest of the fighting, yet two 
will safely come back. And while one sleeps in 
France, he met a soldier's death in battle and died 
fighting for the principles in which we believe — that 
is all we can ask. For my own part, I went in as 
Second Lieutenant of Infantry, was promoted to Cap- 
tain while in France, had the great good fortune of 
being cited and decorated, and still have a useful 
right arm and leg and a fairly useful left arm and 
leg. All of which is more good luck than I deserve.'* 

Capt. Archie Roosevelt has followed his father's ex- 
ample in his early devotion to literary work. His 
articles have some of the characteristics of his father. 
There is that directness of expression which Harvard 
teaches her sons, there is a clearness of thought which 
is unmistakable, and there is a vigorous rebuking of 
what he counts errors and evils and absolute fearless- 




© Underwood & Underwond, N. V. 
THE colonel's TRIP TO WYOMING. 



HIS SONS 265 

ness in doing so, which his father manifested from the 
beginning to the end of his life. A man who has 
served and suffered as the Captain has done will make 
a mighty good citizen. 

Captain Roosevelt's misfortune gave him the sad 
sweet privilege of being with his father and comfort- 
ing and being comforted by him during the last days 
of his life, the delicacy of that relation was too sacred 
for description. A double sorrow fell upon the Cap- 
tain in the death of his wife's father, whose funeral 
he had gone to Boston to attend when advised of the 
death of his own father. The brave boy beat back the 
sorrow that broke his heart, and lovingly acted as an 
usher at his father's funeral. The precious memories 
which he will have of the last ser\dces he was per- 
mitted to render to his father for himself and the 
other brave boys that were in the field will be a pre- 
cious memory to him as long as he shall live. 

CAPT. KERMIT ROOSEVELT 
Capt. Kermit Roosevelt looks so much like his father 
did when I first met him twenty-four years ago, that 
when I saw him, after his return from France, the re- 
semblance- was so striking as to soften my heart, and 
to fill it with holy memories and precious sentiments. 
As I remember it he is somewhat smaller than his 
father was then, but the shape of his face, and color 
of his mustache, worn like his father's, his quick firm 
step, his keenness to apprehend propositions, to in- 
terpret thoughts of others and his swift conclusions, 
took me back to the man I knew a quarter of a cen- 
tury before. 

He was born in 1889. He prepared for college at 
Groton and graduated at Harvard. 

In June, 1914, he married Miss Belle Wyatt Wil- 



266 THEODORE EOOSEVELT 

lard, of Richmond, Va. Their two children are Ker- 
mit, Jr., and Joseph Willard. He went to work in 
Brazil in 1912, spending three years there. He spent 
two other years in Argentina and Chile, returning to 
this country about the time the war broke out. He 
went immediately to the Officers' Training Camp at 
Plattsburg. 

"We were so slow in getting into the war, and he 
was so anxious to enter it, that he sailed from Eng- 
land in July, 1917, to go with the British Army's Ex- 
peditionary Forces in Mesopotamia. Being a student 
officer at the camp at Plattsburg he would not have 
been taken amongst the first to go abroad, but with 
rare initiative he became enrolled as a British sol- 
dier and was cited in British dispatches for his serv- 
ice as an English Captain and received the British 
military cross for bravery in action. But when our 
own boys got over into France he longed to be with 
them and under his own flag, and so in July, 1918, he 
returned to France and was commissioned in the Sev- 
enth Field Artillery (75 's) Regiment which formed a 
part of the First Division. He remained with them 
until January, 1919, at which time they formed a 
part of the Army of Occupation. 

Kermit was like his father, a mighty hunter. He 
was his father 's right hand man in the great African 
hunting trip in 1909-1910, In his African Game 
Trails his father thus speaks of his singular history as 
a hunter i ' ' On this trip Kermit passed his twentieth 
birthday. "While still nineteen he had killed all the 
kinds of dangerous African game — ^lion, leopard, ele- 
phant, buffalo and rhino." The father gives this de- 
scription of a rhino hunt which was a wonderful piece 
of sportsmanship: "Kermit stole down one of the 
rhino paths, save for which the scrub would have been 



HIS SONS 267 

practically impenetrable; it was alive with rhinos; 
Kermit heard several, and Juma, who followed some 
distance behind, saw three. The stalk took time ; and 
the sun was on the horizon and the light fading when, 
at over two hundred yards, Kermit took his shot. The 
first bullet missed, but as for a moment the bull 
paused and wheeled, Kermit fired again and the second 
bullet went home. The wounded beast ran, Kermit, 
with Juma, hard on the trail; and he overtook and 
killed it just as darkness fell. Then back to camp 
they stumbled and plunged through the darkness.'' 

In the same book the father describes a tragical 
fight which Kermit had with a savage leopard which 
surprised and charged him while he was on a lion 
hunt. After having shot the beast, which angry from 
his wound had run down and bitten one of his help- 
ers he found himself charged again, and shot the ani- 
mal when it was almost upon him. It fell dead at 
his feet. The father was very proud of a huge 
heavy-mane lion which Kermit had killed and gave 
a picture of the mammoth man-eater as an illustra- 
tion in his book. 

Kermit Roosevelt in that one year made famous 
progress in nature study and placed himself among 
the world's greatest big-gam© hunters. His courage 
was not only manifested in the use of the rifle, but 
also in the use of the camera in the interest of science. 
His pictures of the dangerous big game in their native 
haunts, taken at close range, will be appreciated and 
studied by the students of natural history everywhere. 

It was a fortunate thing that Kermit Roosevelt, 
who was such a delightful and efficient companion to 
his father on his African tour, should have gone with 
him on his trip of exploration to the Brazilian wilder- 
ness. It was a singularly dangerous, if not a fatal, 



268 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

trip, and the son had an opportunity amidst all the 
dangers and sufferings and sickness of the trip to sup- 
port that strong man, who had held up a nation in 
his mighty arm. It would be surprising if these 
years of companionship, of heroism and mutual help- 
fulness, as well as filial and paternal devotion, had not 
cemented the hearts of father and son in an unusual 
manner. The last night of his life as he sat in front 
of the open fire with Mrs. Roosevelt by his side, after 
having corrected the proofs of his last editorial, he put 
a set of proofs in an envelope and adresvsed them to 
his son. Captain Kermit, who was in the army abroad. 
Capt. Kermit Roosevelt may become a naturalist of 
note, a politician of sagacity, but he will be a patri- 
otic citizen with an equipment for any responsibility 
or honor the people may have in store for him. 

LIEUT. QUENTIN ROOSEVELT 
Lieut. Quentin Roosevelt, the youngest of the chil- 
dren, was born in 1897. He was prepared for college 
at Groton, and had the war not intervened he would 
have graduated at Harvard in the class of 1919. 
Those who knew him best say that he was very much 
like his father in action and endowment ; that he pos- 
sessed evidences of the highest genius. Charley Lee, 
the family chauffeur, told me that he never knew a 
brighter lad. He said that, when a mere boy, Quen- 
tin could see through an automobile almost as well 
as he could himself ; that he understood its parts and 
their workings. He also told me of a physical and 
mental feat which he performed at Groton in man- 
aging two printing presses at the same time — an act 
which had never been performed by any other one in 
the history of the school. He was as rugged in his 
bravery as he was strong in his mental faculties. 



HIS SONS 269 

He was only a sophomore in college when the war 
broke out, but he determined to leave college and en- 
list, and he could talk or think of nothing else. Saga- 
more Hill was not far from Mineola, the Government 
aviation camp, and the bird-men were flying every 
day in practice over their home. His soul, which had 
great wings, longed to soar into the air, and to fight 
for his flag in the most dangerous department of war 
service. 

His father, before giving his consent to his enter- 
ing this branch of the service, went down to the camp 
at Mineola, took a place in an aeroplane to make a trip 
with the pilot and flew over Long Island Sound and 
its shores for about three-quarters of an hour. He 
then talked the matter over with Quentin, who was 
BO anxious to go; and he and Mrs. Koosevelt gave 
their consent. They gave him up to be a bird-man, 
to fight for his country, knowing that danger would 
stare him in the face every moment of his active serv- 
ice. Loving him better than they did their own lives, 
like thousands of other American mothers and fathers, 
they loved their country still better and gave him up. 
The supreme sacrifice was theirs as well as his. He 
went to Mineola for training as an aviator. 

Mr. Will H. Hays in an address at Indianapolis 
said: 

"The president of a college the other day told me 
that he had met Quentin Roosevelt in France a short 
time before Quentin was killed, that he talked with 
him about the fact that the four sons of Theodore 
Roosevelt were all fighting in France, and said, * * You 
have done about your part, Quentin." "Well," this 
young Roosevelt replied, "we boys thought that it was 
up to us to practice what father preached." 

At a social function, given at Sagamore Hill, where 



270 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

about one thousand guests were gathered, a daring 
aviator flew around and around the house and Colo- 
nel Roosevelt watched the skillful manner in which 
the airship was navigated, but never knew, until sev- 
eral days after, that the birdman was his son, Quen- 
tin, who, out of love for his father, was recognizing 
the function. He left for Europe in July, 1917, with 
the first American flying unit. In a desperate air 
battle he was killed on the 14th of July, 1918, his 
plane and body falling over the enemy's lines near 
the little village of Chambry. The Germans buried 
him with honor and marked his resting-place 

The death of Quentin, the bitterest blow of his life, 
did not come to his father without warning, for in a 
dispatch the correspondent of a New York publication 
advised his office to watch Oyster Bay *'for news of 

. ' ' The censor cut the dispatch at that point. 

This was submitted to Mr. Roosevelt, and by a process 
of elimination Quentin was decided to have been at 
least injured. ''It can't be Ted, and it can't be 
Archie," said he, "for both are recovering from 
wounds: it's not Kermit, for he is not in the danger* 
zone at just this moment. So it must be Quentin, 
However, we must say nothing of this to his mother 
to-night." 

Early the next morning a newspaper reporter of 
Oyster Bay went out to Sagamore Hill to carry the 
sad news of Quentin 's death. He rang the bell; the 
Colonel himself came to the door, and, going out on 
the porch together the awful news was broken. The 
Colonel walked the porch in silence for a while and 
then said to the visitor, * ' But — Mrs. Roosevelt ! How 
am I going to break it to her?" He then turned 
about and started into the house to perform one of 
the bravest acts of his life — to tell Mrs. Roosevelt that 



HIS SONS 271 

Quentin had been killed. And she, with a soul as 
brave as that of her husband, received the news with 
supreme heroism. They sent out this joint letter to 
the world which will be read centuries from now as 
a specimen of the highest heroism : 

Quentin's mother anl I are very glad that he got to the 
front and had a chance to render some service to his coun- 
try and to show the stuff that was in him before his fate 
befell him. 

In accordance with a plan of the War Department 
to bring back to their relatives at the close of the 
war the dead bodies of those who died over the sea, 
General Pershing cabled Colonel Roosevelt that, if 
they desired the body of Quentin, it would be re- 
moved to America. France meanwhile had paid the 
fullest honors to the dead aviator. In a letter to Gen- 
eral March, Chief of Staff at Washington, Colonel 
Roosevelt wrote : 

Mrs. Roosevelt and I wish to enter a. most respectful 
but most emphatic protest against the proposed course as 
far as our son Quentin is concerned. We have always be- 
lieved that 

"Where the tree falls, 
There let it lie." 

We know that many good persons feel entirely different, 
but to us it is painful and harrowing long after death to 
move the poor body from which the soul has fled. We 
greatly prefer that Quentin shall continue to lie on the spot 
where he fell in battle and where the foeman buried him. 

After the war is over Mrs. Roosevelt and I intend to 
visit the grave and then to have a small stone pvit up by 
us, but not disturbing what has already been erected to 
his memory by his friends and American comrades-in-arms. 

With apologies for troubling you. 

Very faithfully yours, 

Theodore Roosevelt. 



272 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

And early in the spring Mrs. Roosevelt carried out 
the plan which her husband and she had laid, that of 
visiting Quentin's grave, and receiving every cour- 
tesy T)f the American officers and the French Govern- 
ment, she performed that sacred service in the most 
quiet and modest manner ; and there marked the grave 
for the attention and inspiration of generations to 
come. The mother, when she put the flowers on the 
grave knew that it was not her boy who rested there, 
but the material body which he wore. Quentin Roose- 
velt did not come down with his aeroplane, it was 
only his raiment that he dropped. He continued to 
fly. He flew like an eagle, fought like an eagle, con- 
quered like an eagle and then flew away above the 
clouds and to the mountain top beyond the river. 

MRS. ETHEL CAROW ROOSEVELT DERBY 
Ethel Carow Roosevelt was born in 1891. She re- 
ceived a thorough education in the city of Washing- 
ton. In one corner of the barn at Sagamore Hill, I 
saw a trap which was cherished as a precious relic. 
In it Miss Ethel, when in Washington, drove to and 
from one of the most important girl's schools in the 
country. She possessed the attractive qualities of 
both sides of the house and the training which such a 
home furnishes, and was the apple of her father's eye, 
his companion as a romping girl and his help as a 
mature woman. 

She was married in 1913 to Dr. Richard Derby of 
New York City Two children have been given to 
them, Richard, Jr., and Edith Carow. When the Colo- 
nel came home from the hospital on his last Christmas 
Day, little Edith ran out to meet him and said, ' ' Oh, 
grandpa, come in the house and see what Santa Glaus 
has brought ! ' ' 



HIS SONS 273 

Among many of the pictures of the Colonel none 
seemed more beautiful or eloquent than those in which 
he appears with his grandchildren. His greatness 
seems to reach its climax in the tenderness of his ex- 
pression, as he holds them in his lap or looks into 
their faces. None is more beautiful than the one in 
which he holds Archie's baby in his lap, Eichard 
Derby, Jr., and Edith Carow standing by him with 
the p-oud mothers in the group. The supreme joy, 
which he and Mrs. Eoosevelt had in their children, 
was continued in their grandchildren, which they 
counted as their own. 

Lieut.-Col. Richard Derby was one of the most able 
and successful physicians and surgeons in New York 
City. He entered the Medical Corps of the army, was 
commissioned as major, fought throughout the war in 
the Second Division in France and was promoted to 
a lieutenant-coloneley. 

One of the most beautiful of romances is the love, 
courtship and marriage of Miss Ethel Roosevelt to 
Dr. Derby. I have the story from a gentleman who 
knew the facts. He told me that there was a very 
poor mother at Oyster Bay, who had a son with a 
deformed foot and that in thinking over some plan 
of relief for the boy he felt sure that if the matter 
were brought to Colonel Roosevelt's attention, he 
would see that the boy had some surgical help. He 
said that the Colonel and Mrs. Roosevelt performed 
scores, even hundreds of acts of charity about which 
the public knew nothing, and that such a case would 
appeal to them at once. He met Colonel Roosevelt 
one day and told him about this boy. He immediately 
sent his daughter Ethel down to the house to see the 
child and talk the matter over with the mother. Miss 
Ethel reported the facts to her father, who told her to 



274 THEODORE EOOSEVELT 

take the child down to the Eoosevelt Hospital in New 
York, to have the foot operated upon, saying he would 
pay the bill. She did so and it so chanced that one of 
the surgeons attending the child was Dr. Richard 
Derby, up to that time unknown to Miss Ethel. The 
rest of the story speaks for itself, in a fortunate mar- 
riage and happy family. The boy was cured and went 
out into life without a handicap. 

ALICE LEE ROOSEVELT 
Alice Lee Roosevelt was born in 1885. Her father 
was very devoted to her and she idolized him. She 
was brought up with the other Roosevelt children at 
the home on Sagamore Hill, and was sister to them all. 
Mrs. Roosevelt treated her with the same affection and 
care that she. did the rest of the children. She had 
every educational, moral and social equipment for a 
life of usefulness, happiness and honor. She was mar- 
ried in the White House on February 17, 1906, to 
Nicholas Longworth, of Cincinnati. 

Nicholas Longworth was a graduate of Harvard, 
and the Harvard Law School, a lawyer in Cincinnati. 
With the exception of two years he had been in 1919 
a member of Congress from Cincinnati for sixteen 
years, and had been known through the nation not 
only as Colonel Roosevelt's son-in-law, but also as a 
competent, conscientious and patriotic servant of the 
people. 

Colonel Roosevelt said to me one day, ' ' They would 
not let me go to war, but I sent four of my sons to the 
front, each one of whom I love better than my own 
life, and also the husband of my daughter who seems 
like my own. There is much more of me in the war, 
now, than though I were there myself, for these boys 
are my heart of hearts, they are the life of my life." 



HIS SONS 275 

I never saw him look so serious and it was the first 
time he ever looked to me as though he wanted to 
cry; his words were spoken with such deep emotion. 
"Colonel," I said to him, "we know that the boys will 
do brave fighting and we will hope and pray that 
God will send them back to you." "It is my con- 
stant prayer to God," he answered, "that, in His 
mercy, He will spare them, use them in the battle and 
then let them come home to us again." He paused 
a moment and said, "It is not likely that all will 
come back from such a deadly war, but we will have 
to leave them in the hands of a good God, Who doeth 
all things well," he continued, "I am mighty proud 
of .my boys," and pausing a moment he said, "I am 
just as proud of my splendid girls." 

The one who for over seven years presided over the 
White House with such dignity, grace and genuine 
hospitality, who was the sunshine of Sagamore Hill, 
was the mother of Colonel Roosevelt's sons; and they 
were her jewels. 



FRIENDS AT OYSTEB BAY 



CHAPTER XX 
FRIENDS AT OYSTER BAY 

OUT at Oyster Bay I spent a day with some 
of Theodore Roosevelt's old friends and 
talked with them about him. They told a 
number of incidents that illustrate Colonel Roose- 
velt's characteristics. Rev. J. J. Blythe went out to 
Sagamore Hill one day to see Mr. Roosevelt about the 
son of one of his members who was in the aviation 
corps and whose father desired that he should have 
training in flying in this country instead of in Europe. 
Mr. Roosevelt answered promptly, *'I have not asked 
a single favor for my own boys and shall not do so. 
And hence I shall not interfere with reference to the 
sons of any one else. What the nation wants is men 
on the other side, and men on the other side at once." 
Mr. E. F. Cheshire, the cashier of the Oyster Bay 
bank, was a warm friend of Mr. Roosevelt. He said 
the Colonel often came into their bank, where he had 
his account, and that he invariably removed his hat 
on entering the door; the reason he did so was that 
two of the bookkeepers were women and he removed 
his hat out of deference for them. Though often ap- 
parently rough he was one of the politest of gentle- 
men. Pointing up to the wall of the director's office 

279 



280 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

the cashier said, "Do you see that?" It was a large 
portrait of Mr. Roosevelt, with the dedication to the 
bank written and signed in his own handwriting. 
Mr. Cheshire said, "I often went out to Sagamore 
Hill as a notary public to acknowledge some paper or 
transact some business in connection with the bank, 
and one of the last times I went out there he said 
to me, 'Cheshire, how old are you?* I told him my 
age and he said, 'Have you a family?' I replied, *A 
wife and children.' He said, 'You ought to be in 
the war, you splendid, able-bodied man. You ought 
to be on the other side fighting with my boys at 
the front.' His whole soul was wrapped up in the 
war, and he could not think of anything else or talk 
about anything else." 

Mr. "W. L. Marsh, the station agent of the Long 
Island Railroad at Oyster Bay, for many years 
handled Colonel Roosevelt's private and official tele- 
grams and business of every kind connected with 
the local station. He told a number of incidents il- 
lustrating the admirable traits of the Colonel's char- 
acter. This was one of them: "Once in the presence 
of quite a large delegation of big men in national 
and State affairs I saw him place his hand on the 
shoulder of a poor, good, honest fellow-citizen and 
say, ' By George, this man is my friend ! Gentlemen, 
I love to lean on just such men.' " Was there ever 
a truer illustration of one of the greatest elements 
of Theodore Roosevelt's success, his absolute faith in 
the common people and his firm reliance upon them 
in his public undertakings? 

Colonel Roosevelt knew nearly every person in 
Oyster Bay by name and called very many of them 
by their first names, but this power of memory he 
possessed in so remarkable a degree that he remem- 



FRIENDS AT OYSTER BAY 281 

bered the faces and names of tens, of hundreds of 
thousands. Mr. Marsh recalled an incident illustrat- 
ing Colonel Roosevelt's willingness to correct a mis- 
take when made. He gave a recommendation to a 
man who he thought was a person of ability and 
honor, but he found afterward that the man was un- 
trustworthy. He immediately sent word to the man" 
that he had been mistaken in his estimate of him, that 
he had evidence that made it impossible for him to 
commend him and demanded the destruction of the 
recommendation which he had given him. The inci- 
dent also illustrates Mr. Roosevelt 's absolute integrity. 
Rev. Geo. "W. Roesch, a former minister of Oyster 
Bay and a warm personal friend of Mr. Roosevelt, 
said that the Colonel told him that during the previous 
year, with the help of secretaries, he had answered 
twenty-five thousand letters, twenty-five hundred of 
which were invitations to speak in public. This story 
illustrates Mr, Roosevelt's prodigious capacity for 
work. History does not furnish his superior. As a 
tireless worker he wrought more years with more cor- 
rect methods, with deeper intensity and with larger 
meaning than any other man of our time. The inci- 
dent also shows how immensely popular he was and 
how the people craved his personal presence and ser- 
vice. Rev. Roesch told also this anecdote which, he 
says Mr. H. M. V. Summers is responsible for. It is 
this: About seventeen years before the famous Af-- 
rican hunting trip the Colonel was having some re- 
pairs made at Sagamore Hill. The work done by one 
of the mechanics was not progressing in the manner 
he intended and he drew attention to the work. The 
response was short and sharp, * ' I take my orders from 
the boss," Roosevelt, therefore, saw the contractor 
and the work was soon changed. On his return from 



282 THEODOEE ROOSEVELT 

Africa, seventeen years later, citizens of Long Island 
and New York City attended the mighty hunter's re- 
ception at Sagamore Hill. On the long reception line 
among others, was the before-mentioned mechanic. He 
shook hands with the Colonel, received a few appro- 
priate words, and passed on. He had gone, however,, 
but a few steps, when Roosevelt reached after him, 
pulled him back and demanded with his hearty 
chuckle, ' ' Say, do you still take your orders from the 
boss." 

This anecdote reveals that never-failing memory^ 
and also that kindly forgiving spirit, that were card- 
inal Roosevelt traits. 

Rev. "Warren I. Bowman, of Brooklyn, the former 
pastor of the Methodist Church at Oyster Bay, re- 
membered many incidents which open new windows 
on some of the beautiful phases of Mr. Roosevelt's 
character. Some of them I give here in his own lan- 
guage. Reverend Bowman said: 

Colonel Roosevelt was very, very fond of the people of 
Oyster Bay. He showed his regard for them by giving to 
them an annual reception at Sagamore Hill, The recep- 
tions were democratic in the highest degree. He let it be 
understood that everybody was invited ; he also sent spe- 
cial notices of invitation to be read from the various pul- 
pits and' asked the pastors to emphasize the notice and urge 
the people to come out to his house. It was the gala day 
of all the year to the village. The reception began at four 
o'clock in the afternoon. After a season of most delightful 
social entertainment, President Roosevelt made his neigh- 
bors an address of some kind — social, moral, economic or 
sometimes political, but always non-partisan. Then Mrs. 
Roosevelt would serve refreshments, and the people were 
happy and grateful beyond all description. 

During his term as President the citizens of Oyster Bay 
gave him a reception as he went to Washington and when 
he came back. These were usually held at the depot. I 
fihall never forget the one we gave him as he went to Wash- 



FRIENDS AT OYSTER BAY 283 

ington for the last time during his term. He was very fond 
of music and our male chorus led the singing. He ad- 
dressed us in tender words and then we sang, "God Be 
with You till We Meet Again." Tears filled his eyes. I 
have been with him often, but I never saw him cry before. 
The tears that filled his eyes, fell down in big drops on 
his cheeks, and the whole audience was melted with emo- 
tion. It certainly seemed that God was there and would 
be with him till we met him again. 

He had an inner circle, a closer brotherhood; he was a 
loyal member of the Masonic fraternity and the greatest 
occasions of the year were when he attended the lodge. He 
always spoke to us on some morally healthful theme. I 
remember well what he said on one of those occasions : 
"Brothers, I feel it my greatest privilege and duty, and it 
gives me supremest joy, to help one who is striving to ad- 
vance and to live the life that he should live. But," he 
continued, "where, however, I find one who is given to 
wrong-doings and professes to be good I strike him with all 
the power that is in me." After the address I commended 
what he said? and he replied : "Dr. Bowman, I absolutely 
have no use for a man who is a counterfeit." 

I witnessed a piece of heroism which will match his 
bear and lion hunts. It was on a hot Fourth of July, when 
five thousand people had gathered in an open lot to hear 
him make a speech. He had just started in to make his 
addre^ and a fearful thunderstorm, with pelting rain, 
broke upon the company. The water came down in buckets- 
ful. Some had brought umbrellas and raised them ; some 
of the friends undertook to hold an umbrella over the 
speaker's head, but he waved them away and kept on as 
though nothing were happening. He continued speaking for 
about half an hour until he had said what he intended to 
say. He* was drenched to the skin and so were many others, 
for almost nobody in that five thousand was coward enough 
to leave with such an example set by the leader of the na- 
tion. He did not act as though he had played the hero in 
any degree, nor did he apologize for giving so many 
thousands a ducking ; he had only done what he thought 
was his duty, had only delivered a message which he had 
felt called upon to bring them. 

Mr. Roosevelt was very fond of fishing, swimming and 
boating. One summer I took some boys camping down on 



284 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

Long Island Sound on the shore near that of Sagamore 
Hill. Colonel Roosevelt was a diligent, enthusiastic, suc- 
cessful fisherman, and his children took to the water as 
ducks do. I remember well one fishing trip I had with 
Quentin, then eight or nine years old, and Archie, who was 
older. The brightness and the wit of the boys delighted 
and entertained me. 

Colonel Roosevelt was a fine swimmer. His daughter, 
Ethel, often came down with him to the sound for a swim. 
One afternoon I saw Mr. Roosevelt and Miss Ethel plung- 
ing into the water and making a race for the float some 
distance out on the sound. It was a close race, each reach- 
ing the goal about the same time. Miss Ethel dived from 
the float and swam about it for fifteen or twenty minutes. 
Meanwhile the Colonel walked back and forth on the float 
apparently in a brown study. I suspected he was prepar- 
ing some great message or speech. When his daughter had 
finished her swim, he banished his serious thoughts and 
resumed the sporting spirit, and the two dived together and 
made a race back to the shore. 

He was a fine oarsman ; he had powerful arms ; they were 
well skilled, and he made his boat fairly skip through the 
water. I am pretty strong myself and apt in handling the 
oars. One day I was out with my boat and, as was his 
custom, Mrs. Roosevelt and he were out in his boat, and I 
said to myself, "I will pass him," and so I hurried and 
got pretty nearly up with him and he looked back and 
noticed that I was racing him. He stuck his oars into the 
water, multiplied the stroke at a wonderful rate and the 
gap between was widened. He looked back at me laugh- 
ingly, as much as to say, "Young man, you must grow a 
little older before you can pass me." 

He was very deeply interested in the temporal as well 
as spiritual interest of the churches of Oyster Bay. All 
the churches of whatever denomination were aided by him 
financially when any project was at hand. 

Rev. George Farrar, a former Methodist pastor of 
Oyster Bay, told me that, when certain improvements 
were made, Colonel Roosevelt gave him a cheek for 
$50.00, and also gave him a lecture of his hunting 
trip in Africa which netted the church something like 



FRIENDS AT OYSTER BAY 285 

$100.00. I went out from New York to hear that 
lecture. I listened to the thrilling incidents of a man 
killed this way and that, of the stealing of one of 
his negro helpers one night by a crocodile which 
slipped up into the camp and went off with him down 
into the water, and as he was about closing his ad- 
dress I said to him, "Colonel, you did not tell about 
that close shave you had with that lion?" He an- 
swered, "Which one? We had several." I said, 
"That big man-eating lion that charged you and 
which you stopped just in time to keep him from get- 
ting you." "Oh!" he said, "Yes, a large fierce 
male lion came toward me. I could not see the beast, 
but his long tail reached up above the high grass, 
and at every leap I could see the tail coming closer 
to me, till at last I found he certainly was wanting 
to have some business with me, and I was just as 
anxious to have it with him. And when he got close 
enough I let him have the bullet, and he fell. ' ' Then 
he paused and his eye twinkled with the humor which 
was always running over in him. He said, "My old 
friend here has come out to hear me to-night and 
you perceive that he knows more about my hunting 
trip in Africa than I do myself." 

Rev. George E. Talmage, rector of the Episcopal, 
church in Oyster Bay and a close personal friend of 
Colonel Roosevelt, contributed to The Churchman an 
article which contained material he thought I might 
desire. This is the story : 

While Colonel Roosevelt occupied a modest pew near the 
door, the people of the parish always knew when he was 
there, which was generally every Sunday morning. If he 
were not there, they knew it was a case of sickness or 
absence from Oyster Bay. No guests kept him home from 
church ; if they did not wish to accompany him, they amused 
themselves alone while he attended church. He might have 



286 THEODOEE ROOSEVELT 

got more profit from a book or from his own meditations in 
the woods, but he felt it his duty to attend church to wor- 
ship God. Said a man to him one day : "I can worship God 
just as well in the woods." His reply was to the point: 
"Doubtless you can ; but no one will suspect you of it." 
During the "gasless" Sundays last fall, when many made 
the requirements an excuse for staying home, he set the 
example of loyalty by walking three miles from Sagamore 
Hill to the village church and back home again. And this, 
by the way, was shortly after his return from a serious 
operation which affected his walking not a little. 

There were friends who said in warning, "You will find 
him a hard man to preach to ; he is so positive in his con- 
victions." Would that preachers had always so kindly a 
critic as he — one who could follow what they say, commend 
utterances that were worth while, and suggest books to 
read if the views were divergent. This criticism, always 
in private, might take the form, "I liked that expression ; 
may I use it?" or, "While I did not agree with you, I en- 
joyed your presentation. But, have you read such-and-such 
a book? It is very illuminating." When the House of 
Bishops issued its pastoral on support of the government 
and refraining from criticism, and a copy of the pastoral 
was handed him by the rector, how characteristic was the 
reply : "That is all very well. But how can I keep still 
when I know?" 

There are other parts of church work besides attendance 
at services and listening to sermons. The great work of the 
church is missions. One anecdote will suffice. One hot 
Sunday morning a missionary bishop was preaching. So 
hot it was that his collar was not visible at the end of the 
service. An offering was announced for the following Sun- 
day morning. As we were dismissing the choir the door 
again opened, the bishop was greeted most cordially and a 
bill was placed in the hand of the rector with the brief 
words : "I will not be here next Sunday, but I want to do 
my part." 

We have a little missionary group known as St. Hilda's, 
which meets each week for sewing, to which Mrs. Roose- 
velt belongs and in which Mr. Roosevelt took a great in- 
terest. It was their custom to invite the members to a 
reception every year. During the Presidential term one of 
these receptions was on the Mayfloioer, then anchored in 



FRIENDS AT OYSTER BAY 287 

the harbor. It was a highly honored group to be permitted 
this friendship, for it was a sincere and personal relation- 
ship. Never a sorrow entered their homes but sympathy 
came from Sagamore Hill, and not infrequently a personal 
visit as well. 

Of course the parish has a Sunday school. Looking over 
the old registers one finds the family represented on the 
roll. Once each year, on Christmas Eve, the Colonel Him- 
self spoke to the school, receiving his orange and oox of 
candy with the other members of the school and joining 
heartily in the singing of our historic carol, doubly dear to 
us henceforth, because he loved it. The children and their 
parents little realized their privilege in listening to those 
familiar talks. For example, after the South American trip 
they had the opportunity of hearing informally what many 
traveled miles to meetings of great geographical societies 
to hear. They felt he was one of themselves, but they did 
not know how great he was. 

Space fails to tell of his relationship to various guilds. 
There would be anecdotes connected with them all, and 
this article might resemble the Analects of Confucius. But 
a reference may be made to the Boy Scouts. When Gen- 
eral Baden-Powell was in this country in the interest of 
the new movement, there was an informal luncheon at 
Sagamore Hill, at which the general and some men promi- 
nent in the movement were present. The rector, although 
of little importance to the conference, was invited to meet 
them. He was introduced as "my pastor," and while the 
men tried their best to commit the Colonel to their cause 
they got no further than this — that he pointed out the im- 
portance of the individual scout master, and turned the 
discussion to a consideration of the merits of men in the 
village who might be fitted for such leadership. Without 
doubt the invitation to the local pastor was for the very 
purpose of so turning the discussion. Later on he took a 
prominent place in the movement, and when the Roosevelt 
Troop of Boy Scouts was organized in the parish, consented 
to serve and did serve on the troop committee. 

The picture of the Colonel which will be most prized is 
not that of the Rough Rider, nor the President, nor the 
orator, but the grandfather, hugging his little grandchild. 
How he loved the children ! What interest he took in their 
baptism, standing sponsor near the font ! How he rejoiced 



288 THEODOEE EOOSEVELT 

in their confirmation ! Pride they may well have in later 
years, but reverence and love will be the dominant note of 
their esteem. The Colonel was a man of family, a man of 
peace, but how anxious he was to serve his country that 
his grandchildren might live in peace! He gave his sons 
when he could not give himself. 

One recalls that Sunday morning before Quentin sailed, 
how he came to church for his last communion. We felt 
it would be the last. We talked otherwise. Then came 
the letter from abroad in which was written, "I have just 
been to service in Notre Dame Cathedral. It was fine. 
But I would rather have been in Christ Church." And 
then came the cable message, and early next morning, when 
so many would have stayed away, the parents drew near 
to the same altar rail. There were no dry eyes, and the 
words could scarcely be spoken, but their force was there: 
"Preserve thy body and soul unto everlasting life." This 
time also it was a last communion, but we did not know it. 



HIS RELIGION 



CHAPTER XXI 
HIS RELIGION 

IN estimating Theodore Roosevelt's greatness the 
religious element must not be left out or min- 
imized. From both parents he inherited the 
deepest religious instincts. He was trained in a home 
singularly devout. At the age of sixteen he joined 
the Dutch Reformed Church. 

Rev. Dr. James M. Ludlow, under whom the boy 
Theodore joined the church, lives now in East Orange, 
N. J. He has had long and successful pastorates in 
the Dutch Reformed Church, is an author of some 
note and was pastor of the St. Nicholas Reformed 
church of New York City at the time when Theodore 
united with the church. Dr. Ludlow said to me that 
he had the tenderest, most loving memory "of the 
boy who sat in that pew." He told of becoming pas- 
tor of the church fifty years ago and of how four 
years later, when the new building was opened, the 
parents of Theodore Roosevelt came to worship there. 
"Theodore Roosevelt, the youth, was quick-minded, 
and he had a marvelous power of observing passing 
things," Dr. Ludlow continued. "He thought of 
what he saw. Some one once asked him in what part 
of the body the mind was located. He replied: 'In 
Theodore Roosevelt it is right back of the eye-balls ! ' 
We all predicted that he would make his mark, but 

291 



292 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

where that would be was "uncertain, he was so versa- 
tile. Whether his mark would be on the north pole 
or in the field of literature, we did not know, but we 
never dreamed that he would mark it on the walls of 
the White House or on the locks of the Panama Canal. 
He was always the great big boy of the people. He 
was one of a number of sons of wealthy and noble 
parentage who were especially promising boys. 

"Forty-four years ago just now, Theodore, then 
sixteen years of age, called at my study and said: 
*I have come to have a little talk with you upon a 
personal matter. I would like to become a member 
of the church. You know how strictly I have been 
raised religiously in Christian faith and denomina- 
tional doctrine, and I feel now as if I ought to unite 
with the church. I feel that one who believes so firmly 
in the Bible and in Christianity as I do, should say 
BO publicly, and enter openly into the active service 
of the church; to drill with the troops and fight in 
the battle-front with the soldiers of the Cross. To 
join a church now will do me good personally and 
will be in obedience to the express command of Christ. 
I want to be a witness for Christ; a doer of the 
word.* *' The doctor then said, "I examined him 
and felt that he was an excellent candidate for church 
membership. I handed him over to the Consistory, 
who were much pleased with him, and he was con- 
firmed in the church, and remained a consistent and 
honored member of the St. Nicholas church until the 
day of his death. My opportunities for knowing his 
boyhood life were not nearly so good as those of Dr. 
Adams, who was his father's pastor for a long term 
of years. Soon after Theodore united with the church 
he was taken by his parents on long journeys, one of 
them to the Far East; he spent his summers in the 



HIS RELIGION 293 

country and then went to college, after which we 
never saw much of him. Of course, I have a feeling 
of just pride that he was a member of the Dutch Re- 
formed church and that I had the privilege of open- 
ing the doorway of the church to, him. The honor I 
feel is not so much that he was a very brilliant man 
intellectually, that he occupied high office or com- 
manded the plaudits of the people, as that lie was a 
sincere Christian man and devoted himself to the ser- 
vice of his fellowmen and his Divine Master." 

Soon after Theodore joined the church he felt the 
necessity of putting his profession into practice, show- 
ing his faith by his works ; and so he became a teacher 
in a mission Sunday school and taught the poor, neg- 
lected little feUows the way to Jesus, to a right life 
and to heaven, and taught it for two years until he 
went to Harvard and there continued this class of 
service till his graduation, and in every department 
of church activity and church benevolence he was in 
the forefront until the day of his death. 

Theodore Roosevelt was one of the most profoundly 
religious men this nation or any other nation ever 
had. He was one of the most powerful believers I 
ever saw; and one of the most prodigious religious 
actors I ever beheld. Religion is a science and an art. 
As a science it is a system of doctrines to be believed, 
as an art it is a system of duties to be performed. 
Mr. Roosevelt had the science of religion down to 
a perfection in the most simjile and sincere faith in 
the cardinal doctrines of our religion, and he prac- 
ticed it vigorously, as an art, in the multitude of 
secular acts. He believed firmly in knowing the will 
of God ; but he put the heavy emphasis of his life on 
doing that will in every day life, for after all religion 
consists as much or more in doing secular things. 



294 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

from a religious motive, as in doing the religions 
things themselves. God has so planned it that we are 
to spend most of our time in so-called secular ser- 
vice ; but the religious motive sanctifies it and makes 
all of life sacred. That was the theology and practice 
of Theodore Roosevelt. 

A most complete illustration of his devotion to doc- 
trine and duty, to faith and works, is furnished in 
an address which he made to the men's Bible class 
in the Methodist church at Oyster Bay. * 

He had accepted the invitation of Rev. W. I. Bow- 
man, the pastor of the church, to address the brother- 
hood and the appointment was made for four o 'clock. 
Invitations were sent to other congregations, and the 
church was crowded, and thousands of people stood 
on the outside. The President came down from Saga- 
more Hill, at the appointed hour, with his own little 
Bible, which bore the evidence of much wear. As 
his Scripture Lesson he read I. Corinthians, thir- 
teenth chapter, whose first three verses are : ' ' Though 
I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and 
have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, 
or a tinkling cymbal. And though I have the gift of 
prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowl- 
edge; and though I have all faith, so that I could 
remove mountains, and have not charity, I am noth- 
ing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the 
poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and 
have not charity, it profiteth me nothing." And 
whose last verse is: *'And now abideth faith, hope, 
charity, these three ; but the greatest of these is char- 
ity." 

No man of our times ever incarnated that chapter 
more completely than Theodore Roosevelt. His life 
was one continuous expression of love to God and fel- 



HIS RELIGION 295 

lowmen. He believed that love was everything, and he 
acted out the love which he believed, insistently, from 
the time he entered the stage of action till the time he 
left it. 

He preached a real sermon to the brotherhood. 
His subject was that men must practice the religion 
which they profess, and that, if they do not practice 
it, they are self-deceived in counting themselves pro- 
fessors. He took as his main text James 1 : 22 : " But 
be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, de- 
ceiving your own selves. ' ' During his sermon he had 
a slip of paper on which he had jotted down different 
texts, which he made the basis of the various divisions 
of his message. Some one in the audience saw that 
slip and asked Dr. Bowman if he could secure it for 
him as a souvenir, and the pastor wrote the President 
and received from him the following answer: 

Deab Beotheb Bowman : 

I have taken pleasure in autographing the memorandum 
of those texts. 
With all good wishes, believe me, 

Faithfully yours, 

(Signed) Theodobe Roosevelt. 

The memorandum of texts was as follows : 
Matt. 7 : 1. 

"Judge not, that ye be not judged." 
Matt. 7 : 16. 

"Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather 
grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles?" 
Matt. 25 : 37-40. 

"Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, 
when saw we thee an hungered, and fed thee? or thirsty, 
and gave thee drink? 

"When saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in? or 
naked, and clothed thee? 

"Or when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came 
unto thee? 



296 THEODOKE ROOSEVELT 

"And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily 
I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one 
of the least of these My brethren, ye have done it unto 
Me." 
James 1:27. 

"Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father 
is this : To visit the fatherless and widows in their afflic- 
tion, and to keep himself unspotted from the world." 
James 3 : 17, 18. 

"But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then 
peaceable, gentle, and easy to be entreated, full of mercy 
and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypo- 
crisy, 

"And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace of them 
that make peace." 

Those texts, that seem to include about all of human 
living, the preacher practiced to the minutest detail. 

His love for the missionary cause and his respect 
for the ministry are illustrated by this incident : 

At the White House one day, and in a confidential 
chat with the President, I told him one of my sons 
was going as a missionary to Japan. He instantly 
said with deep feeling, ''Oh, I am so glad. I am so 
proud of that boy and I feel so proud for you. God 
bless him and bless you. ' ' He said, ' ' I have told you 
so many times that I consider the Christian ministry 
as the highest calling in the world, most intimately 
related to the most exalted life and service here and 
destiny beyond, and I consider it my greatest joy 
and glory that, occupying a most exalted position 
in the nation, I am enabled, simply and sincerely, to 
preach the practical moralities of the Bible to my fel- 
low-countrymen and to hold up Christ as the hope 
and savior of the world. I believe down deep in my 
soul, as you know, my friend, that I have preached 
the same gospel that you and your boy are called to 
preach. 



HIS RELIGION 297 

"As high an estimate as I have of the ministry, 
I consider that the climax of that calling is to go out 
in missionary service, as your son is doing. It takes 
mighty good stuff to be a missionary of the right type, 
the best stuff there is in this world. It takes a deal 
of courage to break the shell and go twelve thousand 
miles away to risk an unfriendly climate, to master a 
foreign language, perhaps the most difficult one on 
earth to learn ; to adopt strange customs, to turn aside 
from earthly fame and emolument and, most of aU, 
to say good-bye to home and the faces of the loved 
ones virtually forever. 

"And yet your boy does not count this going as a 
hardship at all, but as an honor, a glory, a joy, and 
not a sacrifice." He said, not at my suggestion, but 
out of his loving instincts, "I am going to help that 
boy all I can; I am going to put myself and Uncle 
Sam behind him and help him in his introduction to 
the field and in his work there, as much as possible. 
Why should we not do so? He is our American boy 
as well as your son. I will write a letter to Mr. Lloyd 
Griscom, our United States minister to Japan, which 
your boy can present on his arrival at Tokio. ' ' 

He sent me that letter. In it he told Mr. Griscom 
that the bearer was a Methodist missionary, the son 
of an old personal friend of his, and asked him to do 
everything in his power to promote his success in 
that field. The letter was on state paper in letters 
like copper plate, signed in the little hand-writing, 
"Theodore Roosevelt, President of the United States." 
The letter was in a very large, beautiful, official en- 
velope, and I wished so much that I might be enabled 
to keep it myself as an heirloom in the family, but 
it went on its beneficent errand and made a fitting 
doorway of entrance into service in the Capital and 



298 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

Empire of Japan. That letter was worth years of 
service in the start. The people thought that he 
must be some distinguished person to bring such a 
letter from so great a man, and he had state privi- 
leges and permits and opportunities for extended use- 
fulness. The boy wrote us that under one of these 
permits he was admitted into one of the inner spaces 
in the public park with its cherry blooms in company 
with the royalty there assembled; and that the late 
Mikado, whose face was seldom allowed to be seen by 
the public because they counted him a god, was so 
close to him that he could have touched him with a 
fishing-pole. 

The next time I saw the President, I told him how 
lovely the letter to Mr. Griscom was and how sweet 
it was in him to send it. I told him I had heard from 
the boy and that he said in his letter that the happiest 
moment of his life was when he stepped his feet on 
the island of Japan. The President said, ' ' You noticed 
that I sent the letter to Mr. Griscom as an official 
document, did you not, and asked him as a repre- 
sentative of our government to stand behind your son 
in his mission? I did not consider that America 
has any relation to Japan which is higher or more 
far-reaching than the education, morals, and religion 
that the missionary carries to that country." 

At the White House one day President Roosevelt 
came into his room, greeted me cordially, as was his 
custom, and then slipped over to another gentleman 
and greeted him. He brought that gentleman over 
to where I was, and said, "Dr. Iglehart, permit me 

to introduce to you Father , who has 

been doing very important work among the Indians 
and has come to talk with me about it." And then, 
placing himself between us, he said, "Here's the great 



HIS RELIGION 299 

Catholic church, with its millions represented by this 
Catholic priest, on one side of me, and here on the 
other is the great Methodist church, with its millions 
represented by my old friend, and I am only a poor 
little Dutch Reform layman between the two." The 
twinkle in his eye evidenced the fun that was always 
bubbling over within him. I replied, ' ' No, Mr. Presi- 
dent, you are not the poor little Dutch Reform lay- 
man between them. You are the great head of the 
nation and a Christian with a universal heart. You 
are large enough to belong to all the churches and all 
of us claim you as such, and we have reason to be- 
lieve that you consider that all of us belong to you." 

He warmed up instantly and answered, "My friend, 
you are quite right. I have the profoundest respect 
and warmest affection for all denominations, Protes- 
tant, Catholic and Hebrew. In my individual contact 
with men I have found the most splendid people 
imaginable holding these various beliefs, and in my 
public administration on all questions of moral re- 
form, and those questions you know I consider para- 
mount; the Protestant minister, the Catholic priest 
and the Jewish rabbi, and the millions that they rep- 
resent, have vied with each other in sustaining me, 
and my arm has been as strong as the millions that 
they represent, in smiting evil and in building up the 
right. You can see how correct you were in saying 
that I belong to all of you and that all of you be- 
long to me." 

Cardinal Gibbons, at my request, sent these words 
with reference to his dear friend, Colonel Roosevelt: 

My dear Mr. Iglehart : 

In reply to your esteemed letter, asking for an estimate 
of Mr. Roosevelt, I wish to say that my relations with him 
were of a most intimate character from the time he en- 



300 THEODOKE ROOSEVELT 

tered the White House up until the day of his death. Be- 
sides I had much correspondence with him, all of a nature 
too sacred to be made public. I ever regarded Mr. Roose- 
velt as the typical American, the embodiment of the highest 
patriotism. 

Faithfully yours, 

(Signed) J. Cabd. Gibbons. 

The Rev. Dr. James Malcolm MacLeod, pastor of 
the St. Nicholas Reformed church of New York, the 
one which Theodore Roosevelt joined as a boy and of 
which he remained a member until his death, at a 
beautiful memorial service in his church emphasized 
this breadth of undenominational vision and apprecia- 
tion in these words : ' ' Theodore Roosevelt was bigger 
than any creed, bigger than any church or denomina- 
tional harness of any kind. He belonged to what we 
hope will be the Great American church. He loved 
all the churches — Protestant, Jewish, and Catholic. 
His passing away brought sorrow into every religious 
fellowship in our land. He was a great American and 
a great Christian." 

In confirmation of the statement the President made 
to me about his belief in all denominations, claiming 
all denominations as his own, I give here the estimate 
of Rabbi Henry Pereira Mendes, one of the most emi- 
nent Hebrew scholars in America, and who has for 
forty-two years been in charge of the Spanish and 
Portuguese synagogue in the fashionable district of 
Central Park West. He says : 

The question of what kind of a man Roosevelt was is of 
tremendous importance, but more so is the question what 
kind of men his memory inspires us to be. It is little use 
saying he awakened conscience, touched the heart, and was 
a great moral force, unless we feel that he has awakened 
our conscience, touched our hearts and made us a moral 
force in our own little world of society, politics and family. 



HIS RELIGION 301 

We can imagine such a man in past years of our Ameri- 
can-Jewish history, and thereby estimate his worth. 

Had he lived in 1665, when the first Jewish settlers ar- 
rived and Peter Stuyvesant and .an influential minister ob- 
jected to their presence, objected' to their building a syna- 
gogue, how he would have thundered at such bigoted nar- 
rowness ! 

When those brave refugees from the cruelty of the In- 
quisition demanded the right of holding a burial-place for 
their dead, as they did, how, had he lived then, he would 
have exclaimed against the inhumanity of the denial of 
their request ! How he would have scorned the intolerance 
which subjected those early Jews, men of high culture, men 
of Spanish dignity, men of high integrity, to such injustice ! 
If a few years later he heard Asser Levy, one of the early 
Jewish settlers, demand the right to serve in the town 
guard, only to meet with refusal, how he would have 
boiled with indignation! And when in 1665 instructions 
came to Stuyvesant from Holland to yield to the request 
of the Jews, and when in 1666 similar pressure compelled 
Stuyvesant to yield to the request of the Jews to be al- 
lowed to purchase a cemetery, how Roosevelt would have 
smitten his thigh with glee and satisfaction! 

In the Revolutionary War, the Rev. Gershon Mendes 
Seixes, minister of this congregation, closed the doors of 
the synagogue during the British occupation of New York 
rather than continue conducting services under British con- 
ditions. Was not that true American patriotism? If 
Roosevelt had been alive then, how he would have gloried 
in it! 

And if he had heard the story of the Jew Gomez, telling 
the sergeant who rejected his application for enlistment on 
the ground of his being too old, "I am not too old to stop 
a British bullet !" how Roosevelt's heart would have leaped 
for joy. He would have slapped the old man on the shoul- 
der, endorsing his true patriotism ! And if he had been 
living when Solomon helped to finance the American Revo- 
lution, how emphatically he would have proclaimed his 
satisfaction ! 

Plain-spoken, outspoken, he always was. He would have 
spoken plainly then had he lived in those days, and his 
example inspires us, his admirers of to-day, to speak out 
and speak plainly when occasion offers! 



302 THEODOEE ROOSEVELT 

The trouble is that most of us are un-Rooseveltian ; we 
prefer to be passive; we are passivists. But a passivist 
Roosevelt certainly was not. 

The elements were so combined in him that all the world 
might say when they saw him, "There goes a man!" He 
was blessed with a strong virility, a remarkable person- 
ality and a capturing geniality. 

He had critics. What great man has escaped criticism? 
Who was more cruelly abused than Washington? Who 
was more constantly attacked than Lincoln, whose admin- 
istration was ridiculed, vilified and condemned more than 
his? "If I were to try to read," Lincoln once said, "much 
less to answer, all the attacks made on me, this shop might 
as well be closed for any other business. I do the very 
best I can, and I intend to keep doing so to the end. If 
the end brings me out all right, what is said against me 
won't amount to anything. If the end brings me out 
wrong, ten angels swearing I was right would make no 
difference!" 

Just such a man was Roosevelt. He spoke for the right, 
he acted for the right and thought for the right as did 
Lincoln, to the best of his ability. His example will in- 
spire us to act for the right, speak for the right, and think 
for the right as far as in our power lies. 

In the perspective of history Mr. Roosevelt will loom 
larger yet, for he was the idealization of what an Ameri- 
can ought to be and what the word American stands for. 
The nation is profoundly impressed by his patriotism, his 
generous life, his fearlessness. As a Jewish minister, I 
cannot forget that Mr. Roosevelt, when Police Commis- 
sioner, with grim humor discharged his duty as Police 
Commissioner to protect a notorious antisemitic agitator 
but assigned the duty to Jewish policemen. The agitator 
was a German, and we wonder whether he saw the humor 
of the situation; he, himself, lecturing on antisemitism in 
Cooper Union, protected by Jevdsh policemen ! Commis- 
sioner Roosevelt never ceased to praise his Jewish police- 
men, some of whom were fast friends till the day of his 
death. 

He was always ready to lend a hand, and it was always 
a very vigorous hand, to promote justice and righteousness. 
One day he is pledging and giving support and cooperation 
in a movement to benefit women employees. Another day 



HIS RELIGION 303 

we find him, as Chief Magistrate, calling Mr, Hay, the 
Secretary of State, to give him instructions to draw up 
and send to the Rumanian government a protest against 
its reprehensible actions against the Jews. One day he is 
pleading for an Armenian or a Belgian, just as years before 
he tried to convert the Czar's government to justice for 
the Jew. And on yet another day we find him like a 
statesman, looking forward for his country's benefit, as 
in the famous Panama transaction. He was a great man. 
Let us see to it that the memory of his greatness shall help 
to make us great. He was a good man. We must see 
that his memory inspire us to live the good clean life that 
he did. He was a brave man. His courage must move us 
to be brave enough to stand for the right as he did 

This estimate of Rabbi Mendes has special signifi- 
cance from the fact that twenty-four years ago he 
helped Commissioner Roosevelt to enforce the law 
closing the saloons on Sunday. I shall never forget 
his words at a certain public hearing on the question. 
Some of our Christian ministers had urged the en- 
forcement of the law, but were quite particular to 
state that they asked for the enforcement not because 
it was a religious command, but because it was a 
civil law, thinking that that plea would have the 
greatest weight with the Mayor. When it was Rabbi 
Mendes' turn to speak, he said that "while he would 
ask for the enforcement of the law because it was on 
the statute books, he asked for it even on stronger 
ground, and that was that it was a divine command 
that one day out of seven for rest was necessary for 
the health of body, mind and soul, and that all civil 
laws were simply based on that elemental principle. ' ' 
He said, "Let the stores close, let the wheels of in- 
dustries stop, certainly let the places of dissipation 
and demoralization be closed and let the people have 
one day in the week for rest and for the worship 
of Almighty God." 



304 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

When Theodore Roosevelt began his political life 
in New York City, he joined a Republican club. A 
name was proposed for membership, and some persons 
determined to blackball the candidate because he was 
a Jew. Mr. Roosevelt heard of the threat and re- 
buked those who had made it in the most stinging 
words and cried out, "Shame on you! Shame on 
you to allow your prejudice against the man's re- 
ligion to so blind you to his excellent character ! This 
man proposed I know. I know him to be an honest 
man and a gentleman, and if he is to be blackballed 
because he is a Jew I should feel very much like re- 
signing from the club right away." The opposition 
was ended and the man was elected to membership 
by a unanimous vote and became a most vigorous, 
useful and honored member of the circle. That was 
the Roosevelt of our country and the Roosevelt of the 
world, who loved all denominations which were trying 
to do the Lord's work, and was idolized by them all. 

Jason, who led the forty-nine most brilliant young 
men of Greece on the journey to secure the Golden 
Fleece and his crown, is reputed in the stories of the 
Greek gods to have accomplished miracles by divine 
direction. He was ordered by the gods to take the 
piece of a limb from the oak of Dodona and have it 
turned into the face of a woman. This he nailed to 
the bow of his ship. He consulted it continually, and 
it was said to have told him where to go and what 
to do. 

Theodore Roosevelt, in accomplishing the miracles 
of his lifetime, had a crucified and risen Savior be- 
fore his eyes, whom he consulted at every step of life, 
who told him where to go, what to say, and what to 
do — to bless his f ellowmen and secure his crown. 



EOOSEVELT AND THE BIBLE 



CHAPTER XXII 
ROOSEVELT AND THE BIBLE 

IN 1903 I said to President Roosevelt: "I should 
like to have from you, for a book I am writing, 
something that expresses your religious faith, 
which is so strong and which I know from your say- 
ings, actions and sentiments is the basis of your char- 
acter and contains your ideas of individual and pub- 
lic morality." He said to me: "I will gladly do so. 
I think the address I delivered before the Long Island 
Bible Society in the Presbyterian church at Oyster 
Bay in 1901 is just the thing you want." I found it 
was exactly the thing I wanted, and this is what he 
said in the address about the Bible: 

"There are certain truths which are so very true 
that we call them truisms; and yet I think we often 
half forget them in practice. Every thinking man, 
when he thinks, realizes what a very large number of 
people tend to forget, that the teachings of the Bible 
are so interwoven and entwined with our whole civic 
and social life that it would be literally — I do not 
mean figuratively, I mean literally — impossible for us 
to figure to ourselves what that life would be if these 
teachings were removed. We would lose almost all 
the standards by which we now judge both public 

307 



308 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

and private morals ; all the standards toward which we, 
with more or less resolution, strive to raise ourselves. 
Almost every man who has by his life-work added to 
the sum of human achievement of which the race is 
proud, of which our people are proud, almost every 
such man has based his life-work largely upon the 
teachings of the Bible. Sometimes it was done uncon- 
sciously, more often consciously, and among the very 
greatest men a disproportionately large number have 
been diligent and close students of the Bible at j&rst 
hand. Lincoln, sad, patient, kindly Lincoln, who after 
bearing upon his weary shoulders for four years a 
greater burden than that borne by any other man of 
the nineteenth century, laid down his life for the 
people whom living he had served as well, built up 
his entire reading upon his early study of the Bible. 
He had mastered it absolutely; mastered it as later 
he mastered only one or two other books, notably 
Shakespeare; mastered it so that he became almost 
*a man of one book,' who knew that book, and who 
instinctively put into practice what he had been 
taught therein; and he left his life as part of the 
crowning work of the century that has just closed. 

"In this country we rightly pride ourselves upon 
our systems of widespread popular education. We 
most emphatically do right to pride ourselves upon 
it. It is not merely of inestimable advantage to us; 
it lies at the root of our power of self-government. 
But it is not sufficient in itself. "We must cultivate 
the mind; but it is not enough only to cultivate the 
mind. With education of mind must go the spiritual 
teaching which will make us turn the trained intel- 
lect to good account. A man whose intellect has been 
educated, while at the same time his moral education 
has been neglected, is only the more dangerous to the 



AND THE BIBLE 309 

community because of the exceptional additional 
power which he has acquired. Surely what I am say- 
ing needs no proof ; surely the mere statement of it is 
enough, that education must be education of the heart 
and conscience no less than of the mind. 

"It is an admirable thing, a most -necessary thing, 
to have a sound body. It is an even better thing to 
have a sound mind. But infinitely better than either 
is to have that for the lack of which neither a sound 
mind nor a sound body can atone — character. Char- 
acter is in the long-run the decisive factor in the life 
of individuals and of nations alike. 

"Sometimes in rightly putting the stress that we 
do upon intelligence, we forget the fact that there is 
something that counts more. It is a good thing to be 
clever, to be able and smart; but it is a better thing 
to have the qualities that find their expression in the 
Decalogue and the Golden Rule. It is a good and 
necessary thing to be intelligent ; it is a better thing 
to be straight and decent and fearless. It was a Yale 
professor, Mr. Lounsberry, who remarked that his ex- 
perience in the class-room had taught him 'the in- 
finite capacity of the human mind to withstand the 
introduction of knowledge.' Some of you preachers 
must often feel the same way about the ability of 
mankind to withstand the introduction of elementary 
decency and morality. 

"A man must be honest in the fiirst place ; but that 
by itself is not enough. No matter how good a man 
is, if he is timid he cannot accomplish much in the 
world. There is only a very circumscribed sphere of 
usefulness for the timid good man. 

"So, besides being honest, a man has got to have 
courage, too. And these two together are not enough. 
No matter how brave and honest he is, if he is a 



310 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

natural born fool, you can do little with him. Re- 
member the order in which I name them: Honesty, 
first; then courage; then brains. And all are indis- 
pensable; we have no room in a healthy community 
for either the knave, the fool, the weakling, or the 
coward. 

"You may look through the Bible from cover to 
cover and nowhere will you find a line that can be 
construed into an apology for the man of brains who 
Bins against the light. On the contrary, in the Bible, 
taking that as a guide, you will find that because 
much has been given to you much will be expected 
from you ; and a heavier condemnation is to be visited 
upon the able man who goes wrong, than upon his 
weaker brother who cannot do the harm that the other 
does, because it is not in him to do it. 

**So I plead, not merely for training of the mind, 
but for the moral and spiritual training of the home 
and the church; the moral and spiritual training 
that have always been found in, and that have ever 
accompanied the study of this book — this book which 
in almost every civilized tongue can be described as 
'The Book,' with the certainty of all understand- 
ing you when you so describe it. 

* ' The teaching of the Bible to children is, of course, 
a matter of especial interest to those of us who have 
families — and, incidentally, I wish to express my pro- 
found belief in large families. Older folks often fail 
to realize how readily a child will grasp a little askew 
something they do not take the trouble to explain. 
We cannot be too careful in seeing that the Biblical 
learning is not merely an affair of rote, so that the 
child may understand what it is being taught. And, 
by the way, I earnestly hope that you will never make 
your children learn parts of the Bible as punish- 



AND THE BIBLE 311 

ment. Do you not know families where this is done? 
For instance: 'You have been a bad child — learn a 
chapter of Isaiah.' And the child learns it as a dis- 
agreeable task, and in his mind that splendid and 
lofty poem and prophecy is forever afterward asso- 
ciated with an uncomfortable feeling of disgrace. I 
hope you will not make your children learn the Bible 
in that way, for you can devise no surer method of 
making a child revolt against all the wonderful 
beauty and truth of Holy Writ. 

' ' Probably there is not a mother or a school teacher 
here who could not, out of her own experience, give 
instance after instance of the queer twists that the 
little minds give to what seem to us perfectly simple 
sentences. Now, I would make a very strong plea for 
each of us to try and see that the child understands 
what the words mean. I do not think that it is ordi- 
narily necessary to explain the simple and beauti- 
ful stories of the Bible ; children understand readily 
the lessons taught therein; but I do think it neces- 
sary to see that they really have a clear idea of what 
each sentence means, what the words mean. 

"Probably some of my hearers remember the old 
Madison Square Presbyterian Church in New York 
when it was under the ministry of Dr. Adams, and 
those of you who remember the doctor will, I think, 
agree with me that he was one of those very rare 
men with whose name one instinctively tends to 
couple the adjective 'saintly.' I attended his church 
when I was a little boy. The good doctor had a 
small grandson, and it was accidentally discovered 
that the little fellow felt a great terror of entering 
the church when it was vacant. After vain attempts 
to find out exactly what his reasons were, it happened 
late one afternoon that the doctor went to the church 



312 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

with him on some errand. When they reached the 
pulpit he said: 'Grandpa, where is the zeal?' 'The 
what?" asked Dr. Adams. 'The zeal,' repeated the 
little boy. 'Why, don't you know?' the little boy 
asked, clasping the doctor's hand and gazing anx- 
iously about while they walked down the aisle to- 
gether, their steps echoing in the vacant building, ' ' the 
zeal of thine house hath eaten me up." You can 
imagine the doctor 's astonishment when he found that 
this sentence had sunk deep into his little grandson's 
mind as a description of some terrific monster which 
haunted the inside of churches. 

* ' The immense moral influence of the Bible, though 
of course infinitely the most important, is not the 
only power it has for good. In addition there is the 
unceasing influence it exerts on the side of good taste, 
of good literature, of proper sense of proportion, of 
simple and straightforward writing and thinking. 

"This is not a small matter in an age where there 
is a tendency to read much that even if not actually 
harmful on moral grounds, is yet injurious, because it 
represents slipshod, slovenly thought and work; not 
the kind of serious thought, of serious expression, 
which we like to see in anything that goes into tiha 
fibre of our character. 

"The Bible does not teach us to shirk difficulties, 
but to overcome them. That is a lesson that each one 
of us who has children is bound in honor to teach 
these children if he or she expects to see them be- 
come fitted to play the part of men and women in our 
world. 

"Again, I want you to think of your neighbors, 
of the people you know. Don't you, each one of you, 
know some man (I am sorry to say, perhaps more 
often, some woman) who gives life an unhealthy turn 



AND THE BIBLE 313 

for children by trying to spare them in the present 
the very things which would train them to do strong 
work in the future? Such conduct is not kindness. 
It is shortsightedness and selfishness ; it means mere- 
ly that the man or woman shrinks from the little in- 
conveniences, to himself or herself, of making the 
child fit itself to be a good and strong man or woman 
hereafter. There should be the deepest and truest 
love for their children in the hearts of all fathers and 
mothers. Without such love there is nothing but 
black despair for the family ; but the love must respect 
both itself and the on beloved. It is not true to in- 
vite future disaster by weak indulgence for the 
moment. 

"What is true affection for a boy? To bring him 
up so that nothing rough ever touches him, and at 
twenty-one turn him out into the world with a moral 
nature that turns black and blue in great bruises at 
the least shock from any one of the forces of evil 
with which he is bound to come in contact? Is that 
kindness? Indeed, it is not. Bring up your boys 
with both love and wisdom; and turn them out as 
men, strong-limbed, clear-eyed, stout-hearted, clean- 
minded, able to hold their own in this great world 
of work and strife and ceaseless effort. 

' * If we read the Bible aright, we read a book which 
teaches us to go forth and do the work of the Lord; 
to do the work of the Lord in the world as we find 
it; to try to make things better in this world, even 
if only a little better because we have lived in it. 
That kind of work can be done only by the man who 
is neither a weakling nor a coward ; by the man who 
in the fullest sense of the word is a true Christian, 
like Great-Heart, Bunyan's hero. We plead for a 
closer and wider and deeper study of the Bible, so 



314 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

that our people may be in fact as well as in theory 
'doers of the word and not hearers- only. ' " 

What a splendid specimen of Christian manhood 
President Roosevelt has proven himself to be! It 
speaks well for the republic, that our rulers are so 
pronounced in their faith in the Bible and profession 
of the Christian religion. 

It is not surprising that Mr. Roosevelt's favorite 
hymn should have been this one: 

"How firm a foundation ye saints of the Lord 
Is laid for your faith in His excellent word! 
What more can He say than to you He hath said, 
You who unto Jesus for refuge have fled? 

"Fear not, I am with thee, oh, be not dismayed, 
For I am thy God and will still give thee aid. 
I'll strengthen thee, help thee, and cause thee to stand 
Upheld by My righteous omnipotent hand. 

"When through the deep waters I call thee to go, 
The rivers of woe shall not thee overflow. 
For I will be with thee, thy troubles to bless, 
And sanctify to thee thy deepest distress. 

"When through fiery trials thy pathway shall lie, 
My grace, all sufiicient, shall be thy supply; 
The flame shall not hurt thee, I only design 
Thy dross to consume, and thy gold to refine. 

"The soul that to Jesus has fled for repose 
I will not, I will not, desert to his foes, 
That soul, though all hell shall endeavor to shake, 
I'll never, no never, no never forsake." 

This immortal hymn is anonymous. It was found 
in a collection of hymns published in 1787 and signed 
"K." Some critics said it was Kennedy, others that 
it was Kirkham, and others that it was Keith, a Lon- 
don publisher, but no one knows who its author was. 



AND THE BIBLE 315 

It would give him lasting fame if he could be found 
As McKinley's affection for the hymn, "Nearer My 
God to Thee," gave to it a new melody, so Roosevelt's 
partiality for "How Firm a Foundation" has sweet- 
ened and sanctified it anew. 



FAVORS WAR AND CONSTITUTIONAL 
PROHIBITION 



CHAPTER.XXIII, 

FAVORS WAR AND CONSTITUTIONAL 
PROHIBITION 

IN the early struggles of the temperance cause one 
of the heaviest blows the liquor people received 
was the abolition of intoxicants from the army- 
canteen. For years and years thousands, even hun- 
dreds of thousands of dollars, were spent in news- 
paper advertising and in specific literature claiming 
that removing the drink feature of the canteen from 
the army had injured the soldiers; that they went 
away from the camp to the vile drinking-places near 
to it and poisoned themselves with bad liquor and 
polluted themselves with evil habits. They insisted 
most that its removal had greatly increased the social 
evil. The advertising department of the brewers was 
so persistent, that it not only wrote its own arguments 
for insertion in the daily and weekly newspapers, but 
it also prepared articles which appeared as editorials 
in many of the cosmopolitan papers. The same edi- 
torial, word for word, often appeared in eastern, west- 
ern, northern and southern daily papers bearing about 
the same date. During President Roosevelt's admin- 
istration there was a tremendous attempt to restore 
drink to the canteen in the army. A leading New 
York City Republican paper, which had usually been 
on the right side of moral questions, one day printed 

319 



320 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

an editorial giving in detail the damage that the re- 
moval of the canteen had brought and asking for its 
return to the army. It said, emphatically, that two 
of the leading members of President Roosevelt's Cab- 
inet were not only in favor of it, but that they in- 
tended to use their influence for its restoration. Feel- 
ing that it was then time to enter a protest against 
such a movement I went to the chief to do so. 

Knowing Colonel Roosevelt's life-long hostility to 
the saloon, knowing that his whole life was at right 
angles to what it represented and with faith in his 
wisdom on such a subject, I went down to Washing- 
ton, told the President my alarm and asked him if he 
would not set his foot down on the movement. He 
said to me, *'Do not be alarmed; give yourself no 
trouble at all on the subject; the removal of the drink 
from the army was a most fortunate thing for the 
men themselves and the nation they represent, and I 
promise you that so long as I am President, or so long 
as I shall have any influence whatever in the Repub- 
lican party or in American politics, intoxicants shall 
never come back into the canteen. You can take the 
first train back home and feel certain that the nation 
will not take a back step on such an economic or moral 
question." Bidding him good-bye, I suggested that it 
would be an excellent plan for the two able members 
of his Cabinet, who like some other good men were 
mistaken on the subject, to lessen their supposed zeal 
in advocating the claim of the liquor dealers, and thus 
save his administration from the just criticism of the 
church people. 

During the last campaign for the repeal of prohibi- 
tion in Maine, the liquor people started a rumor that 
Theodore Roosevelt was about to publish an editorial 
in the Outlook on the failure of prohibition in Maine. 



CONSTITUTIONAL PROHIBITION 321 

The rumor came to the ears of Rev. Dr. P. A. Baker, 
national superintendent of the Anti-Saloon League, 
who was at that time engaged in the Maine campaign. 
He came to New York post haste and sought an in- 
terview with Mr. Roosevelt. He secured an appoint- 
ment for the next morning at the Outlook office at 
eleven o'clock. Dr. Baker, Rev. J. A. Patterson and 
I met Colonel Roosevelt. I told him that I knew that 
rumor was false, but that Dr. Baker was very anxious 
to have authority for an official denial of the same 
as he feared such a rumor, if not instantly and au- 
thoritatively denied, might lose the State to prohibi- 
tion. He snapped out instantly, "Give yourself no 
concern, gentlemen, I will not touch it! I will not 
touch it ! Dr. Baker and Dr. Iglehart are Methodists, 
and Dr. Patterson is a Presbyterian. You good Meth- 
odists, and you good Presbyterian, and the good 
people of other denominations are right in such an 
overwhelming majority of cases that I think it per- 
fectly safe to stay with them as I always have done, 
I never trained with that crowd in my life (referring 
to the liquor men), and I never will." 

A telegram came from my personal friend, Mr. J. 
Frank Burke, superintendent of the Oregon State 
Anti-Saloon League, on March 15, 1912, stating that 
on the platform and in the press it was charged that 
Colonel Roosevelt was on his way, rapidly, to a drunk- 
ard 's grave and a drunkard's hell and asked me as 
the Colonel's friend to wire a denial of the slanderous 
statements to be used at a political meeting to be held 
in. Portland that same night. This telegram went back 
in reply: 

"Statement diabolical falsehood. Roosevelt never 
claimed total abstainer. Drinks almost nothing. No 
alcohol in eye or muscle. Not a spot on him, body, 



322 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

mind or soul. The bloom of best American civiliza- 
tion. Idol of people. Christly McKinley suffered 
same villainous slander from same source. Hell is not 
far from lying scandalmonger." 

Though corresponding with the Colonel regularly, 
I did not care to irritate him with this slander, but 
in a letter in May, 1912, I gave him the text of the 
two telegrams received. His answer was the follow- 
ing: 

En Route, Pullman Pbivate Cab Oceanic, 

May 14, 1912. 

My deae Friend: You are a trump! I am very glad you 
sent precisely that telegram. You are absolutely correct. I 
have never claimed to be a total abstainer, but I drink as 
little as most total abstainers, for I really doubt whether on 
an average, year in and year out, I drink more than is given 
for medicinal purposes to many people. I never touch 
whiskey, and I have never drunk a cocktail or a highball 
in my life. I doubt whether I have drunk a dozen tea- 
spoonfuls of brandy since I came back from Africa, and 
as far as I now recollect, in each case it was for medicinal 
purposes. In Africa during the eleven months I drank 
exactly seven ounces of brandy ; this was under our doc- 
tor's direction in my first fever attack, and once when I 
was completely exhaustedv My experience on these two 
occasions convinced me that tea was better than brandy, 
and during the last six months in Africa I took no brandy, 
even when sick, taking tea instead. I drink just about as 
much as Dr. Lyman Abbott — and I say this with his per- 
mission. 

Faithfully yours, 

Theodore Roosevelt. 

Colonel Roosevelt nursed his wrath until he could 
nail the lie, which he did in his successful suit against 
an editor, in which he got the complete vindication 
which he demanded and deserved. 

Never since that day has any person of responsibil- 
ity dared repeat the foul slander, and Theodore Roose- 



CONSTITUTIONAL PROHIBITION 323 

velt stands as a superb personality against the iniquity 
of the saloon and its intimate partnership with cor- 
rupt polities. 

On January 4, 1917, at my request, Colonel Roose- 
velt gave me in condensed form his views against the 
saloon as he had so often done in private conversation. 
He called his stenographer and began : 

My deab Doctor Iglehabt : It has been my very good 
fortune to be associated with you ever since the days when 
I was president of the Police Commission of New York, 
when I worked hand in hand with you, and with the Min- 
isters' Association that you represented on behalf of tem- 
perance, and of doing away with the evil of the saloon 
power in New York City. At that time, our fight was for 
a proper observance of the Sunday law. There could have 
been no more practical illustration of the hideous evil, 
wrought by the liquor traffic, than was afforded by the re- 
sults of its stoppage for the few Sundays during which 
we were able to keep the saloons absolutely closed. Dur- 
ing this period, the usual mass of individuals up in the 
courts on Monday morning, on charges of being drunk and 
disorderly and committing assaults, diminished by two- 
thirds or over. The hospitals, such as Bellevue, showed a 
similar diminution of persons brought to them because of 
alcoholism and crimes due to drunkenness. On the other 
hand, the healthy Sunday resorts in the neighborhood of 
New York showed a great increase in business. Men who 
would otherwise have stayetl in New York drinking, while 
their wives and children suffered in the heated tenement 
houses, took these same wives and children for a Sunday 
holiday in the country, rnfortunately, by the end of that 
time, the decisions of the courts and juries had so ham- 
pered our action that, to a very large extent, the old sys- 
tem was reinstated. While this was partly because pub- 
lic opinion had not been educated to sustain us, it was 
partly because of the alliance between the saloon power 
and the politicians. Any man who fails to take into ac- 
count both of these facts is blinding himself to two of the 
prime factors in the misgovernment of our citizens and in 
the misery of our city populations. If you care to know 



324 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

my views more fully, as written at the time, I refer you 
to my chapter on the subject printed in a book called. 
"American Ideals." The only change I have since to record 
is a constantly growing appreciation of the wide-reaching 
evil of the liquor traffic, and of the need of extending, by 
every method possible through our country, a full under- 
standing of what this evil is. 

Sincerely yours, 

Theodobe Roosevelt. 

In *' American Ideals," to which Colonel Roosevelt 
referred me, I find these references to criminals who 
were office holders and political leaders. There was 
one case of an assemblyman who served several terms 
in the Legislature, while his private business was to 
carry on corrupt negotiations between the excise com- 
missioners and owners of low haunts who wished 
licenses. The president of a powerful semi-political 
association was by profession a burglar, while the man 
who received the goods he stole was an alderman. An- 
other alderman was elected while his hair was still 
short from a term in State Prison. A school trustee 
had been convicted of embezzlement and was the as- 
sociate of criminals. A prominent official in the Po- 
lice Department was interested in. disreputable houses 
and gambling saloons, and was backed politically by 
their proprietors. 

In a section under the heading, "The Liquor Seller 
in Politics," there is this description of the saloon 
as a headquarters for both political parties: "Pre- 
paratory to the general election of 1884, there were 
held in the various districts of New York ten hundred 
and seven primaries and political conventions of all 
parties, and of these no less than six hundred and 
thirty-three took place in liquor saloons — a showing 
that leaves small ground for wonder at the low aver- 
age grade of the nominees." 



CONSTITUTIONAL PROHIBITION 325 

In urging National Prohibition as a war measure, 
Colonel Roosevelt said: 

"When we are threatened with a shortage of food- 
stuffs, when it is our duty to supply food to our allies 
to our utmost ability, we should see that needed food 
necessities are not diverted from their proper use. 
Most of the belligerent nations of Europe have taken 
up this problem and settled it. Let us begin at once 
to see to it that our grain is kept for food and not 
put into alcoholic beverages. 

In a letter received from the Colonel on December 
19, 1917, he said: 

My deae Mr. Iglehart: I thank you for your book and 
appreciate your sending it to me, and I wish to congratulate 
you on what has happened in Congress and the success that 
is crowning your long fight against alcoholism. 

The American saloon has been one of the most mischiev- 
ous elements in American social, political and industrial 
life. No man has warred more valiantly against it than 
you have, and I am glad that it has been my privilege to 
stand with you in the contest. 

It will be seen from the date of this letter that it 
was written the day after Congress finally accepted 
the National Constitutional Prohibition Resolution 
and the decision of Congress which he congratulates 
refers to that action which was the death knell of the 
liquor traffic in America. 

To a number of other persons he expressed the same 
views with leference to National Constitutional Pro- 
hibition, among them Wayne B. Wheeler, Rev. A. B. 
Wood, Senator Frederick Davenport, and others. 

HE FAVORED WOMAN SUFFRAGE 
Colonel Roosevelt was a champion of Woman Suf- 
frage; was one of the first great political leaders to 
espouse that cause, and it is likely he made more 



326 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

friends for it than any other one man. I spoke at 
the Methodist church at Oyster Bay, New York, one 
Sunday morning, and after the service a young wo- 
man who said she was from Kentucky, snapped her 
black eyes and said, "What you said about woman's 
influence in driving out the saloon is true. But when 
you pictured woman on her knees praying God to 
wipe out this curse, why did you not suggest that 
men help God to answer that prayer by giving her 
the right to vote?" Colonel Roosevelt, who attended 
service at that church that morning, standing near, 
heard her question and said, ''She is correct in her 
belief that women would vote against the saloon. I 
have just returned from a tour of Michigan in behalf 
of woman suffrage, and in the windows of the saloons 
I saw large placards, ' Vote against Woman Suffrage, ' 
and on the streets I saw advertisements of the saloon 
in living forms muttering out in their intoxication, 
'Vote against the Women.' Of one thing I am con- 
vinced, and that is that the liquor people fear wo- 
man's vote as a deadly enemy." 

One of the last things Mr. Roosevelt did before he 
died was to write a letter asking Congress to pass 
the Constitutional Female Suffrage Resolution. Thou- 
sands, if not millions, of people, who had been against 
woman suffrage or had been lukewarm on the subject, 
were stirred into enthusiastic approval because Col- 
onel Roosevelt was so certain of the wisdom and prac- 
ticability of this reform, which came in the adoption 
of the amendment by Congress shortly after his death, 
to the lasting benefit of the nation. 



ROOSEVELT THE GREAT HEART 




(g) Int. Film rinvicc Co. ^,- ^V. X. l. I'iioto Service 

Top left hand side Col. THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

right " •' Caft. KERMIT ROOSEVELT 

Bottom left " " Capt. ARCHIE ROOSEVELT 

right " " Lieut. QUENTIN ROOSEVELT 



CHAPTER XXIV 
ROOSEVELT THE GREAT HEART 

WE found the parallel for Theodore Roosevelt 
in the Hercules of classical antiquity. We 
see his counterpart in the Great Heart of 
Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress. Senator Henry Cabot 
Lodge in his masterful memorial oration uses as his 
peroration a quotation from Bunyan's allegory. He 
likens Roosevelt to Valiant — for-the-Truth, whom the 
author represents as holding the sword, with which 
he fights for the right, so firmly that it became ce- 
mented to his fingers and seemed to grow out of his 
hand as a part of it. But the real hero of the second 
part of Pilgrim's Progress was Great Heart. His 
tender regard for women and children was such that 
he devoted his time and energy in helping them up 
the pathway of life, and in clearing away its difficul- 
ties and dangers. He was a Hercules who braved 
lions in the path, drove them out of the way of the 
women and children and fought and slew the robbers 
and giants that undertook to harm them. It was 
Great Heart who led Christiana and her four sons 
along the dangerous pilgrimage of life up to the de- 
lectable mountains and the land of Beulah. He pre- 
sents an exact picture of the tender regard Theodore 
Roosevelt always had for the women and children of 

329 



330 THEODORE EOOSEVELT 

America, especially for the helpless ones. From the 
very beginning of his public life till the day of his 
death he did everything in his power to improve the 
condition of women and children, and to promote 
their progress, usefulness and happiness. The laws on 
the statute books safe-guarding the interest of the 
women and children, especially those of the poor, were 
many of them put there by Mr. Eoosevelt's influence. 
The other day I went over on the East Side to 
see a very old woman, Mrs. Mary Ledwith, who said 
she was born in 1830, and hence was 89 years of age. 
She said that she went to live in the home of Mr. 
Charles Carow, the father of Mrs. Theodore Roose- 
velt, before Lincoln 's election. She was in the family 
when Mrs. Roosevelt was born ; she put her first dress 
upon her and remained in the family until the time, 
when she went, as a nurse, into the home of Colonel 
Roosevelt, when Miss Ethel Carow was married to 
him. She remained in the family until a few years 
ago. She said there never was a nicer little girl than 
Ethel Carow, and no finer woman than Mrs. Ethel 
Roosevelt. She is so lovely to me now, comes to see 
me and on Christmas always brings me some nice 
present, generally a garment that she has made with 
her own fingers. This nice one she gave me this last 
Christmas. I had the chance to see Colonel Roosevelt 
at close range and there was never a finer man. He 
also has been so tender and good to me, visiting me, 
and always came to see me when I was sick. All those 
pictures on the wall of Mr. and Mrs. Roosevelt and 
the children were given to me by him. The last time 
he was here he spent some considerable time looking 
over them and said, ''This one was taken at Albany, 
that one in New York, this other one in Washington 
and this at Oyster Bay." Those pictures are mighty 



ROOSEVELT THE GREAT HEART 331 

good company to me and they seemed to be to him 
that day. Quite an amusing incident occurred one day. 
I had lived on the second floor of this building and 
had moved to the third, where I am now. And Colo- 
nel Roosevelt, running up the first stairway, rushed 
into the apartment I formerly occupied and fright- 
ened the tenant nearly out of her wits. Mrs. Weis- 
man resented the insolence and Colonel Roosevelt told 
her who he was, begged her pardon and said he wai 
looking for Mrs. Ledwith. He then came upstairs just 
as full of life as a boy and laughed heartily as he said, 
"You got me into a lot of trouble by not notifying 
me that you had moved upstairs, for I got into an- 
other person's house and did not know but that I 
would be arrested as a burglar." Mrs. Ledwith said 
she was very sorry that her memory had failed her, 
as she had so many delightful experiences in being 
in the home of so great and good a man as Theodore 
Roosevelt. Theodore Roosevelt's tender regard for 
Mrs. Ledwith was an illustration of that affection and 
care which he had for the aged man and woman. 

Almost the greatest characteristic of Mr. Roose- 
velt's life was his love for children and the deep in- 
terest he took in their welfare. No wonder the boys 
in America idolized him. He knew them so well and 
was so much of a boy himself. During the Barnes 
trial in Syracuse the Colonel kept up his horseback 
exercise. One afternoon a prominent Syracusan looked 
up from his newspaper on the front porch and called 
to his wife upstairs: ''There goes Theodore Roosevelt 
on horseback. ' ' At the moment the six-year-old son of 
the house was in the bathtub. He heard his father, 
rushed scampering and spattering downstairs, out of 
the front door and right down the walk to the middle 
of the street, hoping for a glimpse of his great idol. 



332 THEODOKE ROOSEVELT 

But he was too late for the Colonel had gotten out of 
sight, and the father had to run out and kidnap his 
nude child and carry him back into the house while 
the little fellow kept on saying: "Where is he, papa! 
Where is he! Which way did he go!" That night, 
at a reception, the father told the Colonel of it. *'By 
George — ^by George ! ' ' — and he chuckled. ' ' You bring 
that boy to me — I want to see him ! " He was brought, 
duly clad, and was mounted for half an hour on the 
Roosevelt knee, and told stories about Injuns and lions 
and giraffes and grizzlies and my grandchildren ; and 
when taken home in a trance, and measured, his father 
said he had grown an inch. 

Not very long before he died, one autumn day Colo- 
nel Roosevelt went down to the court in New York and 
sat for two hours at the elbow of Justice Hoyt and 
acted as unofficial consulting justice. In one case he 
leaned over and whispered to a youngster, ''It's all 
right, sonny. You're all right, but remember don't do 
it again or he'll send you away." One little urchin 
had stolen something good to eat from the pushcart 
and had made restitution to the owner. Mr. Roose- 
velt as he thumped the arm of the chair said, "That's 
a fine boy, that kind make first-rate citizens." 

Colonel Roosevelt's love for the children was mani- 
fested in his deep desire that the children of the plain 
people, and of poverty, might have all the advantages 
of a common school education, and also technical in- 
struction in the fine arts. This interest was shown, a 
few years ago, in a visit to the Third Street Music 
Settlement in New York City. He was entranced with 
the orchestra of East Side boys and girls, from many 
lands, playing a movement from a Haydn symphony, 
and was astonished by three little pupils with the 
Widor "Serenade" for piano, violin and 'cello, fol- 



ROOSEVELT THE GREAT HEART 333 

lowed by various piano and violin solos. He made 
the children a beautiful speech in which he said: 
"Boys and girls, do not envy your neighbors who 
may have many automobiles in their garages while 
you have your piano, your violin, or 'cello. Prepare 
yourself to earn the living wage, but do not forget to 
leave the casement open to let in ' the light that never 
was on sea or land. ' Let the love for literature, paint- 
ing, sculpture, architecture, and, above all, music en- 
ter into your lives. ' ' 

One cold day in February in returning from lunch 
to The Outlook office he found a little immigrant boy 
nine years old who had got lost from his parents and 
was crying bitterly. The Colonel took out his hand- 
kerchief, wiped the child's eyes and spoke to him 
kindly, and took him by the hand and led him to the 
matron of one of the police stations with the personal 
request that she immediately find his parents and take 
him to them, which she did. 

In 1903 there was an important function in Port- 
land, Ore., of which Mr. Roosevelt was the centre. 
The city was crowded and the pavements were lined 
with people witnessing the procession. There was a 
little incurable invalid girl, who was very anxious to 
see the President of the United States as he went by. 
And they put her on a stretcher and carried her to the 
edge of the pavement. President Roosevelt, noticing 
the pale, sick little creature, stopped his carriage, ran 
to the cot where she lay, stooped down and kissed her 
and then hurried back to his carriage and the proces- 
sion went on. As Hercules, he was at the head of the 
nation ; as Great Heart, he bent down and kissed the 
sick little child. 

This love for children is illustrated by an incident 
told me by Rev. Dr. Bowman. One day Mrs. Bowman 



334 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

and her small daughter, Ruth, were taking a train for 
Oyster Bay. The child, lifted up the steps by her 
mother, ran ahead of her into the car. Knowing 
Colonel Roosevelt and noticing that no one else was 
in the seat with him, she sat down beside him. The 
Colonel had a manuscript in his hand but at once 
turned aside and entered into an earnest conversation 
with Ruth. The mother half scolded the child for 
having disturbed the Colonel and took her by the 
hand to lead her to another seat. The Colonel in- 
stantly remonstrated and said he felt proud that the 
child had noticed him and that he was glad she sat 
beside him. He arose politely and asked Mrs. Bow- 
man to take his seat by the side of Ruth, saying he 
would find another one. She remonstrated, but he 
insisted and sat down by the side of a colored man, 
which no one else in the car seemed to care to do. 
Before going, however, he said, "Ruth, I am about 
to start on a long journey to Africa. I will be away 
a long time and shall not be able to see you. Here 
is a dollar which I want you to keep to remember me 
by, and here is another dollar I want you to give 
to your brother for him to remember me by." 

Several years before when little Ruth was a baby 
learning to walk she had pulled herself up by the 
side of a high-chair in which her brother was seated 
at the table and pulled it over on her and cut her 
head pretty severely. Colonel Roosevelt, hearing of 
the accident, immediately sent his daughter Ethel 
down to the parsonage to find out how badly the child 
had been hurt and to say that if there was anything 
he could do for her he would count it a privilege to 
do so. 

In one of Colonel Roosevelt's greatest addresses he 
describes the ideal man as a true Christian and illus- 



ROOSEVELT THE GREAT HEART 335 

trates that fact by referring to Great Heart, Bun- 
yan's hero. 

THE COVE SCHOOL 

The little Cove School, near to Sagamore Hill, fur- 
nishes a complete revelation of Roosevelt, the Great 
Heart. On a visit to the Cove School Miss Ella G. 
Stewart, who is the teacher there, gave me the follow- 
ing information. In everything connected with the 
school he took as deep and personal an interest as 
though it were his own family. There was a garden 
committee of the rural neighborhood, composed of 
ladies, which gave prizes for the best kept garden at 
the different homes in the neighborhood. The exhibits 
were brought to the school house in September, be- 
fore the beginning of the school, and first, second and 
third prizes, which were furnished by the women, were 
presented by Mr. Roosevelt. 

He took a deep interest in these contests and on 
Friday following the opening of school he awarded 
the prizes. He gave a book himself to the one who 
made the best effort. For instance, he gave a book to 
a boy who did not have the best garden, but who had 
the best garden under the circumstances. His field 
was full of roots and hard to cultivate, and the Colo- 
nel explained to the school that the boy got the book 
because he had made such a good garden having had 
to overcome such great difficulties. Leonard Hall got 
one of these big books on gardening as a prize. 

Each year Arbor Day was celebrated, Mr. Roosevelt 
paid for the trees and each of the scholars planted 
one. One autumn he presented a large bird house 
and put it up in a tree in the school yard and the 
children put up smaller boxes in the trees around the 
house and here the birds found refuge and nested and 



336 THEODORE EOOSEVELT 

sung. There was no mistake about Great Heart's 
feeling for the beautiful choristers of the woods. The 
walls of the school were fairly covered with the pic- 
tures of birds and on the table was a magazine about 
birds and reasons for loving them, which he sent to 
the school with his compliments every year. On the 
wall was a curious picture and a beautiful one also 
made of silk thread by a sailor who was on one of the 
ships of the fleet that went around the world, and 
which he sent as a present to Colonel Roosevelt. In 
presenting the picture Mr. Roosevelt told them about 
the great United States fleet and the reasons he had 
for sending it around the world. 

Noticing a bronze tablet on the wall in memory of 
Mr. Fleet, who had been a trustee of the school for 
thirty-one years, I remembered it was the one to 
which Colonel Roosevelt declined to contribute. In 
answer to a letter requesting his subscription, which 
was expected of course to be an affirmative one, he 
declined. He knew Mr. Fleet to have been an excel- 
lent man and to have rendered invaluable services 
and that if the memorial should do the children any 
practical good, such as a drinking fountain or a gym- 
nasium or fountain for birds on the outside he would 
contribute liberally to it, but for a brass tablet on the 
wall not a cent. He said he would not give a cent to 
it if the memorial was to his grandfather. 

The crown and climax of the Cove School year were 
the Christmas exercises. For over thirty years Great 
Heart had been the Santa Claus of the school, making 
piles of fun for the children and just as much for him- 
self. It had been the custom of Mr. Roosevelt for over 
thirty years to give a present to every child in the 
school at Christmas time. He arranged it so that each 
child should write a letter to the teacher telling her 



ROOSEVELT THE GREAT HEART 337 

what present he or she desired Santa Claus to bring. 
The letters were carefully filed and each boy and girl 
received to the dot the very thing asked for. 

The exercises were usually held on Friday afternoon 
closing the school term and preceding the Christmas 
vacation. The children first gave recitations and 
songs, and then Mr. Roosevelt made a twenty-five- 
minute address to them and their parents and friends 
who had assembled. 

Rev. H. S. Dunning, pastor of the Presbyterian 
Church at Oyster Bay, a warm friend of Mr. Roose- 
velt, often went out to the Cove School Christmas 
exercises. He told me a number of interesting things 
about the exercises, among them a story which the 
Colonel related in one of these short addresses. 

He told about one of the few Christmases he spent 
away from the Cove School, the one in which he was 
on his hunting trip in Africa. Mr. Roosevelt said that 
he chanced to be, on that day, among the natives at a 
town where few, if any, white people lived. A bull 
elephant had been running amuck, terrifying the peo- 
ple of the vicinity and killing some of them. He and 
his party determined on this Christmas day to go out 
and, if possible, destroy the beast. In a very vivid 
way he related the story of how they came upon the 
creature and how finally, after considerable peril to 
themselves, they succeeded in despatching him. Need- 
less to say, the eyes of the children bulged with excite- 
ment as the tale was unfolded to them. 

After the exercises Mr. Roosevelt took the presents 
off the tree one by one with his own hands and had 
the child whose name was called come forward and 
receive it, and he usually made some delightful or 
funny remark about the present that was given. For 
instance, he would use some baseball phrase when he 



338 THEODORE ROOSEVELr 

handed a boy a ball and bat, and would have some 
sweet little words to say when he gave a dolly to a 
little girl. Little Margret Martin, aged five years, 
came forward for her present and Santa Clans took 
her up with a hand under each shoulder and holding 
her up said, *'l want everybody in the house to see 
the sweet little girl who made such a pretty speech 
to-day. ' * When a boy came up for his present he gave 
him a flashlight, saying, * ' This reminds me of my trip 
to South America, when I had to get up in the night 
with my flashlight to see if there were any snakes un- 
der the bed." 

At the close of the exercises the Colonel shook hands 
with everybody in the house (there were usually 
about one hundred present). He was the host, and 
all were the happy guests that day. More than that, 
he seemed like a father and the children and neigh- 
bors like his family. Beside the gifts to the children 
he gave each year a book to every teacher in the 
school. Only one year did he ever miss, that was in 
1917. That Christmas he sent a letter to the teachers 
informing them that he and Mrs. Roosevelt had de- 
termined not to give any Christmas presents to adults 
that year as the war was on and they wanted to save 
every cent they could to aid in its prosecution. He 
said they hacJ determined to continue the gifts to the 
children as usual and that they might have the chil- 
dren send their letters out to Santa Claus as usual, 
and that they would get the presents they asked for. 
The little Cove School, democratic and progressive* 
has been fortunate in its teachers. Miss Sarah C. Pro- 
vost was the head teacher for twenty-four years. Since 
her death that position has been filled by Miss Stewart. 
It is a long distance between the country school at the 
cove and the University of Oxford, Cambridge, Paris 



EOOSEVELT THE GREAT HEART 339 

and Berlin, but Great Heart, acting as Santa Glaus 
for the little Cove School, was as great, if not a 
greater man than he was as a world character with 
cap and gown receiving his degree from Cambridge. 
Love is the strongest thing in the universe. Love is 
the strongest force in human character. It colored the 
intellect and dominated the imperial will of Theodore 
Roosevelt. He was a Hercules in force, in rugged vir- 
tue and heroic service for others. But he was also 
Great Heart, whose love softened his spirit and con- 
trolled his life. 

When Theodore was a boy his father took him and 
the other children and left them at their own Sunday 
School at Dr. Adams' church and then went on down 
into the ^ums to take charge of a mission school 
amongst the poor and the wayward. The aunt, Mrs. 
Bullock, used to say as she saw him starting out with 
the children, ''There goes Great Heart." And as the 
world saw Theodore Roosevelt caring for the children 
of his home, his community and of the nation, es- 
pecially concerning himself about the children of the 
poor and wretched, the people said in their hearts, 
''There goes Great Heart." In his boyish, playful 
spirit, in his intense affection for the children, in his 
plans for their betterment and happiness, he imitated 
his Master, Who said, "For of such is the kingdom of 
heaven." 

In referring to Colonel Roosevelt's death, Rudyard 
Kipling said, "It is as though Bunyan's Mr. Great 
Heart had died in the midst of his pilgrimage." At 
first thought it would seem that Great Heart had died 
on his pilgrimage, but on second thought we feel -that 
having conducted safely so many women, children and 
helpless ones up the rugged, dangerous path of life to 
the river over which they passed to the Celestial City, 



340 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

he himself followed them and joined the throng upon 
the other side. 

There was a giant in olden times. He was so tall 
and strong that he used forest trees as walking sticks 
and wore the clouds as his hair. The lightning was 
the flash of his eye, the thunder was the sound of his 
voice, the tornado was his breath, and the earthquake 
was the shock of his foot. He had a bad heart and 
was mighty to oppress, injure and slay, and people 
fled from him in terror and their loud wails of sorrow 
and pain were heard. In our time there lived a giant 
mightier than the one in classic story, but of another 
character. His heart was great. His feet stood firmly 
on the earth and his head was crowned with stars. He 
was a terror to evil-doers only. The lightning of in- 
dignation, that flashed from his eye, shattered the in- 
stitutions of moral evil, and the thunder of his voice 
warned the people of the dangers that threatened the 
happiness and life of the republic. But this giant 
loved his fellowmen and went about doing good. 

He was so tall in heart and mind that everybody 
in the nation could see him, and was charged with 
such mysterious magnetism that they could not take 
their eyes off him, but watched to see where he went, 
what he said, and what he did. He went among the 
common people, who heard him gladly as he taught 
them how to govern themselves, and how to govern 
the nation. He went into the homes of the poor to 
sympathize with them, lift them up and bring hope 
and joy to them, and demanded of the law-givers 
better housing and education for them. He went 
among the sick, suffering and oppressed to bless them. 
He entered the universities and taught them. He vis- 
ited the State Lepslatures and National Capitol and 
asked that just and beneficent laws be enacted. 



( 

KOOSEVELT THE GREAT HEART 341 

Everywhere hundreds and thousands of chil- 
dren from the homes and schools flocked about him, 
and followed him to cheer and love him. He played 
with them, and loved'them as a father would his own, 
and had both arms full of them wherever he went. 
And the people said that this giant that can crush 
the great evils of the nation with one arm, and press 
the babies to his heart with the other, was a real sov- 
ereign, and demanded that he be the ruler of the na- 
tion. And in office and out of office the people looked 
to him as their leader till the day of his death. This 
giant was so beautiful in his character and so fragrant 
in his influence that the multitudes flocked about him 
and cheered him, and they shouted, **He is Roosevelt! 
Roosevelt!" (A field of roses.) They said he is Theo- 
dore, Gift of God, as the name indicates. And so he 
was a garden of June roses, a gift of God, to our earth 
and generation. He arose as the mighty hero in the 
forefront of the fight of the world battling for the 
rights of his fellows, and the honor of his God, and as 
soon as the victory was won he slipped away one 
night, and made an easy step from the mountain top 
of earthly duty and fame into heaven. 



HIS DEATH 



CHAPTER XXV 
HIS DEATH 

IT is likely that if Theodore Roosevelt could have 
had his choice about the manner of his departure 
from this world he would have selected a place 
on the battlefield in France, counting it a privilege 
to die for his country, but Providence planned it 
otherwise. He died in his own home at Sagamore 
Hill early on the morning of Monday, January 6, 
1919. He had had such a pleasant Sunday evening 
doing some literary work, with Mrs. Roosevelt by his 
side as they sat before the blazing logs in the fire- 
place, and he went upstairs to his room to have a 
good night's rest. James Amos, who had been a 
faithful colored servant in Washington and had been 
recently engaged at Sagamore Hill, sat at the foot 
of his bed. He said to the man, "Please turn out the 
light, James, I want to go to sleep." James turned 
out the light and he went to sleep and never awoke. 
Mrs. Roosevelt bade him good-night just before mid- 
night and slipped into his room again at two o'clock 
in the morning and found that everything was well ; 
but about four o'clock Amos noticed that Mr. Roose- 
velt was somewhat restless and breathing rather heav- 
ily. He turned on the light, went to his side and 

345 



346 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

touched him and found he was dead and notified Mrs. 
Roosevelt and a nurse who had been attending him 
for his rheumatism. He was lying on his side with 
his arms folded in a sweet sleep with the most peace- 
ful expression. The great and beautiful spirit had 
left its expression in the clay after it had flown. 

About a year ago he went to Roosevelt Hospital 
with trouble in his ear. They operated upon him two 
or three times, the last one leaving him very weak 
and disabled. He went back home and after a short 
rest went out through different parts of the country 
making speeches to stir up a more vigorous prosecution 
of the war. In the early winter he was taken down 
with what was called inflammatory rheumatism; his 
limb and arm swelled to almost twice their normal 
size and he suffered inexpressible anguish. He paid 
no attention to either the pain or the disability, but 
went on writing his editorials and sending out his 
messages to the people as though nothing in the world 
was the matter with him. They brought him back 
from the hospital on Christmas day, and he was able 
to walk a little with Mrs. Roosevelt about the grounds. 
He was unable to take the strenuous kind of exercise 
to which he had been accustomed. He had had the 
African fever twice during his hunting trip. In the 
Brazilian swamps he almost perished with the fever, 
from which he never recovered, and added to all this 
was the death of his son, which helped to break him 
down and, poisoned through and through, a clot of 
blood lodged in his lungs early that morning and 
stopped his breathing. 

Relatives were summoned, and the sad news was 
sent out to the world with special cables to the boys 
in Europe. That Monday afternoon three aeroplanes 
flew over the home on Sagamore Hill and each 



HIS DEATH 347 

dropped a wreath of laurel close to the elm tree. 
They were in memory of the father and also of the 
son, their comrade and hero. 

At noon on Wednesday a brief funeral service was 
held in the trophy room at Sagamore Hill, attended 
by the family and a few most intimate friends, and 
then the body was taken to Christ's Episcopal church 
in Oyster Bay. It was possibly the simplest funeral 
service ever held for a distinguished man. There was 
no firing of guns, beating of drums, blowing of bugles 
or bands of any kind ; there were no honorary pall 
bearers nor distinguished ushers. New York City po- 
licemen, each over six feet high, rode on horseback 
upon either side of the auto hearse to the church, and 
other giant policemen from the metropolis kept guard 
about the building. Some of the most distinguished 
men of the nation were present, the Vice-president, 
senators, congressmen, governors of States, represen- 
tatives of foreign nations and others. The church 
was small, holding only about four or five hundred, 
and perhaps five thousand others stood out in the 
snow around the church. Although there had been 
a request that no flowers be sent to the church, the 
chancel was covered with blossoms of exquisite beauty 
and sweet perfume. One of these was a wreath of pink 
and white carnations in accordance with a message 
from President "Wilson in France. One wreath had a 
white ribbon which had United States Senate in letters 
of gold. A floral emblem, made of heather, pink roses 
and blue violets, was sent by a Japanese organization. 
The American Historical Association of Washington 
sent lilies, the Republican National Committee orchids, 
violets and peach blossoms. The American Academy 
of Arts and Letters, the Boone and Crockett Club, the 
American Defence Society, Campfire Club of Amer- 



348 THEODORE EOOSEVELT 

ica, the National Institution of Arts and Letters, and 
other organizations beside numerous individuals sent 
floral pieces. The coffin was wrapped in the Ameri- 
can flag and upon it rested a wreath and two banners, 
one the Regimental Standard of the Rough Riders 
and the other the National Standard of the Rough 
Riders. The wreath was a bronze laurel and acacia, 
the yellow being the cavalry color. This was from 
the Rough Riders, a delegation of which was present 
at the funeral. 

At the front of the church the coffin of the world's 
hero preached an eloquent sermon; on the rear wall 
of the church there were two sheets of foolscap 
paper under glass which also preached eloquently. 
They had written upon them with pen and ink the 
names of ninety-eight members of the parish who had 
entered their country's service, the first four names 
being Roosevelts and the one name of the whole list 
distinguished by a gold star being that of Quentin 
Roosevelt. The rector, Rev. G. E. Talmage, D.D., a 
dear friend of Colonel Roosevelt, read the beautiful 
service of the Protestant Episcopal church. At the 
request of Mrs. Roosevelt he read the Colonel's fa- 
vorite hymn, ''How Firm a Foundation." After the 
service, which was short, the body was borne to 
Young's Memorial Cemetery, two-thirds of the way 
from the village to Sagamore Hill and on the same 
road. It is the nearest burying place to Sagamore 
Hill. It was the site Mr. Roosevelt had picked out 
for his last resting place. The grave is at the top 
of a steep hill. It is a beautiful spot indeed, simple 
in the highest degree. There is no sign of art or 
display, only the oaks and locust trees, and the cedars, 
and the forest just over the country fence and the 
beautiful bay in full view near by, and the rabbits 



HIS DEATH 349 

and quails in the grass and the birds making nests in 
the trees and singing their love songs unite to testify 
to the beauties of the world and the love of the Crea- 
tor. And here the body of earth's great man was laid 
to rest and his grave was covered with flowers. 

Theodore Koosevelt needs no monument. His signal 
and heroic services are monuments erected in every 
part of our land and throughout the world, and yet 
we, the living, need the monument for him, not only 
one in memory and affection, but also the monuments 
of stone, some large, tall shaft or figure that shall re- 
mind the coming generations of the great giant that 
lived and loved and wrought for them. His friends 
rejoice to know that a fund of ten million dollars is 
to be raised to set up suitable memorials for him in 
different parts of the country, one to include a park 
at Oyster Bay and Young's Cemetery. This, one of 
the simplest burying places on earth, on account of 
this precious dust has been transmuted into one of 
the most sacred and famed cemeteries in the world. 

The sudden news of Theodore Roosevelt's death 
shocked the world, and from every section and calling 
of this country and from distinguished men abroad, 
including the heads of many of the governments, came 
messages of condolence to the home on Sagamore Hill. 
The one from King George was as follows : 

The Queen and I have heard with feelings of deep re- 
gret of the death of your distinguished husband, and we 
offer our most sincere sympathy for your irreparable loss. 
We had a great personal regard for him. and we always 
enjoyed meeting him. He will be missed by many friends 
in this country to whom he endeared himself by his at- 
tractive character and many talents. 

The message of Queen Alexandra was: 

I am indeed grieved to hear of the death of your great 



350 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

and distinguished husband, for whom I had the greatest 
regard. Please accept my deepest sympathy on the ir- 
reparable loss you have suffered. 

Lloyd George cabled to Mrs. Roosevelt the follow- 
ing message : 

I am deeply shocked to have the news of your distin- 
guished husband's death. I feel sure I speak for the British 
people when I tell you how much we all here sympathize 
with you in your great bereavement. Mr. Roosevelt was a 
great and inspiring figure far beyond his country's shores, 
and the world is the poorer for his loss. 

Rudyard Kipling said : 

Colonel Roosevelt's death means an incalculable loss to 
his own land and to that new world which all men hope 
to see. It is as though Bunyan's Great Heart had died 
in the midst of his pilgrimage, for he was the greatest 
proved American of our generation. 

President Woodrow Wilson, shocked and grieved, 
cabled the following message: 

It becomes my sad duty to announce officially the death 
of Theodore Roosevelt, President of the United States from 
September 14, 1901, to March 4, 1909, which occurred at his 
home at Sagamore Hill, Oyster Bay, New York, at 4:15 
o'clock in the morning of January 6, 1919. In his death 
the United States has lost one of its most distinguished 
and patriotic citizens, who had endeared himself to the 
people by his strenuous devotion to their interests and to 
the public interests of his country. 

As president of the Police Board of his native city, as 
member of the legislature and Governor of his state, as 
Civil .Service Commissioner, as Assistant Secretary of the 
Navy, as Vice-President, as President of the United States, 
he displayed administrative powers of a signal order and 
conducted the affairs of these various offices with a con- 
centration of effort and a watchful care which permitted 
no divergence from the line of duty he has definitely set 
for himself. 

In the war with Spain he displayed singular initiative and 



HIS DEATH 351 

energy and distinguished himself among the commanders 
of the army in the field. As President he awoke the na- 
tion to the dangers of private control which lurked in our 
financial and industrial systems. It was by thus arrest- 
ing the attention and stimulating the purpose of the coun- 
try that he opened the way for subsequent necessary and 
beneficent reforms. 

His private life was characterized by a simplicity, a 
virtue and an affection worthy of all admiration and emu- 
lation by the people of America. 

In testimony of the respect in which his memory is held 
by the government and people of the United States, I do 
hereby direct that the flags of the White House and the 
several departmental buildings be displayed at half-staff 
for a period of thirty days, and that suitable military and 
naval honors under orders of the Secretaries of War and 
of the Navy be rendered on the day of the funeral. 

•Done this seventh day of January, in the year of our 
Lord one thousand nine hundred and nineteen, and of the 
independence of the United States of America the one hun- 
dred and forty-third. 

WooDEow Wilson. 
By the President, 

Frank L. Polk, 

Acting Secretary of State. 

Theodore Roosevelt, a young man, was married to 
Miss Carow in the old St. George 's church in London. 
In the same city in Westminster Abbey the world 
hero was honored by one of the most important me- 
morial services ever held. The beautiful, timely ad- 
dress by Archdeacon Carnegie was as follows : 

What were the qualities which have called forth this 
widespread response of enthusiastic appreciation? The 
question is well worth asking. Its answer would reveal 
to us something, at any rate, of that spiritual heritage 
which the two great families of the Anglo-Saxon race share 
in common and which is. let me emphasize the fact, the 
ultimate basis of our hope for the world's future. 

Let us try to visualize the man — to form a mental pic- 
ture of some of his chief characteristics. A forceful and 



352 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

magnetic personality, vital and strenuous in work and play, 
a loyal and warm-hearted friend, c fair-dealing opponent, 
an enthusiastic sportsman, a devoted patriot, an active and 
, resourceful politician, the soul of honor and straightforward- 
ness in his public and private transactions, courageous and 
fearless and enterprising. 

Such are some of the qualities which arrest our atten- 
tion as we read his life's story, all of them qualities which 
men, brought up in the Anglo-Saxon atmosphere, instinct- 
ively appreciate and admire. But the picture thus pre- 
sented is not complete. I have spoken to several people 
who had the advantage of close personal contact with Mr. 
Roosevelt, and they are unanimous in saying that the full 
secret of his influence must be sought at a deeper level — 
that it was ultimately due to the intensity of his moral 
convictions and the decisive clearness of his moral vision. 
His distinctive feat, as some one has put it, was to re- 
discover the Ten Commandments. To him the moral law 
was the supreme and all-embracing law of human life, 
tolerating no rivals, admitting of no competitors. When 
conscience had spoken, its claims for obedience were abso- 
lute and unavoidable ; there must be no dallying or delay ; 
right is right and wrong is wrong; the distinction between 
them is clear-cut and decisive; at aU costs and hazards 
the call of duty must be followed ; the only alternative is 
self -confusion and self -contempt. It was thus that he looked 
out on life; this was the master strain of his rich and 
complex manhood. 

And I think I am right in saying that this is also the 
master strain of typical British manhood. However much 
the average Englishman may evade the claims of conscience 
in his ordinary conduct, at heart he recognizes their su- 
premacy and accords his chief respect to those who meet 
them. Moreover, when these claims are presented in em- 
phatic and urgent terms he seldom fails to respond to 
them. We witnessed such a response on a large scale at 
the beginning of this war. With the invasion of Belgium 
the moral issue suddenly became unmistakable; there could 
be no reasonable doubt as to its character. The British 
people here and beyond the seas recognized this, and spon- 
taneously and immediately ranged themselves and all they 
possessed on the side of the moral law. 



HIS DEATH 353 

On similar grounds the American people can make a 
similar claim. Their traditional detachment from Euro- 
pean affairs made it less easy for them to recognize at 
once the crucial character of the- situation which had 
arisen here. But when this became clear to them their re- 
action was in no wise different from ours. 

And then a great thing happened. Deep called to deep, 
we and our kinsmen met on the moral level, and we be- 
came conscious that in the essential things of life no dif- 
ferences divide us, that with regard to them we think 
and feel as they do, that our fundamental aims and as- 
pirations and ideals are identical with theirs. It is not 
overstating the case to say that this may prove to be by 
far the most important outcome of this war. 

Now, in the process which led up to fhis result, it was 
given to Theodore Roosevelt to- play a leading part. 
. He knew his fellow countrymen, knew that when 
once their attention was aroused they would feel as he 
felt and act as he would have them act. He was their 
prophet in the strictest sense of the word — one who in- 
terpreted to them the secrets of their hearts and revealed 
to them principles already implanted there. He spent him- 
self in the efforts which he made, he sacrificed his life for 
the cause as truly as if he had laid it down on the battle- 
field. But before he died he had accomplished his al- 
lotted task. He had passed on to his fellow countrymen 
the message he had received and had heard them respond- 
ing to it in conclusive terms of overwhelming power. 

It is small wonder that they should feel impelled to pay 
high tribute to his memory. It is equally small wonder 
that this tribute should be reached here in the Mother- 
land of the Anglo-Saxon race. 

•We English are not intellectual idealists. Through long 
experience in self-government we have learned that most 
practical problems are far too complex and intricate to ad- 
mit of theoretical solutions. So, though we like listening 
to idealists and discussing their views, when confronted 
with a concrete situation we are disposed to deal with it 
by instinctive rather than by intellectual methods. But 
we are at heart moral idealists. The instinct on which 
we ultimately depend is the moral instinct. ... In 
the long run it is men of character who command our con- 
fidence and mold our opinion. It is on their judgment and 



354 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

guidance that we finally depend. Sincere, straightforward, 
single-minded men, who believe in goodness and in its ulti- 
mate victory, and are not afraid to proclaim and act upon 
their belief, and, if necessary, to face opposition and to in- 
cur opprobrium in its behalf. 

Such a man was Theodore Roosevelt. In our common ad- 
miration for his life and character we and our American 
kinsmen reveal ourselves to one another and become con- 
scious of our essential afJinity. He has contributed no 
small share to the movement for reunion between us, too 
long delayed by past estrangements and present prejudices 
and misunderstandings. It is altogether fitting that we 
should remember with thankfulness and with all honor 
one to whom it was given by God to render such notable 
service to his f ellowmen. 



ADDRESSES BY DEPEW AND BISHOP 
WILSON 



CHAPTER XXVI 

ADDRESSES BY HON. CHAUNCEY DEPEW 
AND BISHOP WILSON 

THE New York City Methodist Preachers' Meet- 
ing, composed of a thousand members, said to 
be the largest ministers' meeting in the world, 
held a Roosevelt Memorial Service the Monday morn- 
ing after the Colonel's death at which the Hon. 
Chauncey Depew and Bishop Luther B. Wilson made 
eloquent addresses. 

Mr. Depew, though eighty-five years old, spoke with 
his old-time fire, humor and eloquence for over an 
hour. He cheerfully gave me the full text of his ad- 
dress. Much of Mr. Depew 's address is here given: 

My Friends : It is a very great pleasure for me to meet 
you here this morning. I am glad to comply with your re- 
quest to join in your service for Theodore Roosevelt. He 
was my friend from his boyhood until his death- No one 
could know him without having for him the profoundest 
affection and the greatest admiration. He was one of the 
most extraordinary men of our period, or of any period ; 
he made history and was a most important factor in the 
history of his time. His whole public career is lined with 
monuments in beneficent legislation and individual achieve- 
ment testifying to services for his country and the world 
of the greatest value. He was born two years before the 
breaking out of the Civil War and was President of the 
United States when it was the necessity of the Executive 

357 



358 THEODOKE ROOSEVELT 

to have a united country in support of policies for the 
benefit of the whole United States. For this destiny he 
was fortunate in his ancestors : his father of Dutch and 
Scotch ancestry, was a leading citizen of New York and 
cue of the most useful and prominent citizens of the North ; 
Ms mother was from Georgia and represented the best 
blood and traditions of the South. He could appeal, as no 
President had been able to since the Civil War, to all sec- 
tions of the country, North, South, East and West. 

He had a consuming desire to be all the time doing 
something and .producing something. When he was Gov- 
ernor, with all the exactions of the place, he, nevertheless, 
found time to write books. He was under contract with 
his publishers on both the African hunting trip and the 
Brazilian journey of exploration. After a day of rough 
travel and perilous adventure, when all his companions 
were used up and asleep, he sat by a box on which was a 
candle and by its flickering light wrote the day's chapter 
for his book. He was daily contributing to the press and 
to weekly and monthly magazines, constantly giving inter- 
views and making speeches, and yet in some mysterious 
way found time for conferences with political leaders, with 
men of letters, with distinguished visitors, with his pub- 
lishers, the managers and the editors of his magazines and 
newspapers. 

He was a frequent attendant at social functions, and the 
most desired and welcomed of guests at public and private 
dinners. He was temperate in all things, but a glutton for 
work. 

His activities were during the greatest period of indus- 
trial development which this country has ever known, a 
period in which masterful men developed in an unpre- 
cedented way our natural resources, our manufacturing and 
our transportation with results that were enormously bene- 
ficial to communities and multitudes of people, but yielded 
fabulous returns to the architects. 

Colonel Roosevelt admired these men and their achieve- 
ments, but always looked upon them and what they did 
from the standpoint of public safety and public service. His 
clear vision was never obscured. He had no fear of big 
business, and to his mind the bigger the better, if the best 
results for all could be had that way; at the same time, 



APPRECIATION ADDRESSES 359 

if in his judgment the process was becoming dangerous to 
the public welfare because of its tendency to monopoly 
he became at once its enemy. 

As New York Police Commissioner he startled, aroused 
and enraged a wide open city where the law against vice 
had always been laxly enforced, if at all, by announcing 
as his policy the rigid enforcement of the laws. Saloon- 
keepers and gamblers, votaries of pleasure and all that 
multitude who in a great city, if unrestrained, violate the 
law, were instantly up in arms. They formed a great pa- 
rade for personal liberty, but to their amazement found 
occupying the front seat on the reviewing stand the new 
Police Commissioner. A German brewer shouting, "Where 
is Roosevelt now?" was amazed by hearing the Police Com- 
missioner say, "Here I am, my friend, what can I do for 
you?" The surprise reversed the German mentality, the 
brewer called three cheers for Roosevelt and that part of 
the procession collapsed. Wherever in the district infested 
by gangs and gunmen the patrolman's life was always in 
danger, there, at all hours, would be found strolling along 
and in constant peril of assassination, Mr. Roosevelt. Dis- 
cipline and efficiency soon made the New York police the 
finest body in the world. 

In a few months after his inauguration, McKinley was 
assassinated, Roosevelt became President and gave to 
the country seven years of the most eventful and fruitful 
Presidential terms in our history. An incident of the con- 
vention may be of interest. There being no contests be- 
cause the nominations were unanimously agreed upon, the 
orators of the convention had no opportunity of presenting 
the claims of various candidates, so they exhausted them- 
selves and exhausted the audience by making practically 
the same speeches over and over again for Mr. McKinley 
and Governor Roosevelt. The crowd had ceased to listen 
and had begun to scrape the speakers down, when a West- 
ern delegation came to me and said, "You never get out 
our way, and we would like to hear you speak." Roosevelt 
as a fellow delegate sat immediately in front of me. He 
turned around and said in his quick way, "Yes, yes, he 
will speak. He must give us something new; if these 
bores keep this up any longer it will beat the ticket." And 
he seized me and practically threw me upon the platform. 
It was one of those occasions where a story is the only sal- 



360 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

vation for a speaker. Near me sat a portentously solemn 
United States Senator whose platitudinous speech had al- 
ready been delivered three times. As I started the story 
he turned to the Chairman and in a horrified and tragic 
voice said, "Great Heavens ! The solemnity and dignity 
of this historic occasion is to be ruined by a story." 

Great and successful leadership requires many qualities. 
I have known, beginning with Lincoln, with considerable 
intimacy every President of the United States. None of 
them had all these qualities except Mr. Roosevelt. He was 
a born leader of men. His industry was phenomenal, but 
in addition was that intelligent work which knew where to 
find what he wanted and his marvellous intelligence which 
grasped, absorbed and utilized this material with the pre- 
cision of a machine. 

He loved companionship and found time to enjoy his 
friends. When that friend left, he had contributed all he 
possessed to the materials useful to this great Executive. 
He might be a college professor, a United States Senator, 
a Foreign Ambassador, a State Governor, a Justice of the 
Supreme Court, a labor leader, a cowboy from the ranches, 
a hunter from the mountains, a traveler from overseas — all 
were equally welcome and all equal contributors. 

In looking over the acts recommended and the laws 
passed during Roosevelt's administration, we find a mass 
of constructive work, of progress and reform, which gathers, 
condenses and puts in practice the accumulated necessities 
which had arisen since the close of the Civil War. 

We rejoiced in our marvelous prosperity, at the same time 
it was our greatest peril. A few masterful men were com- 
bining the industries of the country and had almost per- 
fected the consolidation of its transportation. Roosevelt 
alone, of his co-temporaries, with his unequaled insight in- 
to public opinion, saw a gathering storm. He sensed an un- 
rest which was culminating into dangerous hatred of suc- 
cess. He set about vigorously to correct these evils and 
succeeded. His railway legislation did away with many 
of the abuses which had necessarily grown up with the 
rapid progress of railway building and consolidation. He 
put a curb on great Trusts and blocked the way of gen- 
eral monopoly. He incurred the bitter and venomous hos- 
tility of powerful interests in the financial world, in specu- 




© Underwood & Underwood, N. Y. 
ON RETURN FROM HIS AFRICAN HUNTING EXPEDITION. 



APPEECIATION ADDRESSES 361 

lative circles and in the stock exchanges, but when he sent, 
as he was in the habit of doing, for captains of industry, 
he converted at least one of the ablest of them by putting 
in a sentence a pregnant truth, "Sir, you have to deal with 
me now, or the mob later." 

Mr. Roosevelt, on his way home from his hunting and ex- 
ploration expedition in Africa, was received with signal 
honors, as if still President, by Great Britain, France and 
the Kaiser. He was hailed with the same enthusiasm and 
demonstrations which have greeted President Wilson, both 
in London and Paris. 

It was the President's psychology of public men and pub- 
lic sentiment of foreign nations which led him to solve and 
settle threatened difficulties with Japan. Through the East 
specially, and to a large degree in Europe, there was al- 
most abi^olute ignorance of the strength and power of the 
United States. The American battle fleet was ordered to 
sail around the world. This formidable array of war ves- 
sels of the most modern design and equipment and ready 
for immediate action produced a profound impression in 
all countries. It was peace by demonstration of prepared- 
ness and power. It was the fundamental article in Roose- 
velt's creed that preparedness and power in a free and 
liberty-loving nation instead of provoking war promoted 
peace. 

He first among our public men saw what must be our 
position in this world war. He found the great mass of his 
countrymen satisfied with their isolation and pacifists in 
sentiment, but in season and out of season he preached pre- 
paredness and the peril to us at home and to our institu- 
tions of the triumph of autocracy upon the field of battle 
in Europe. It was the wonderful effect of his stirring ap- 
peals which made it possible for the President to secure 
universal assent for the declaration of war. Roosevelt was 
never more himself in that faculty, which was one of his 
strongest points, of practicing what he preached and placing 
himself in the forefront of danger than in what he did when 
our country entered the war. He proposed to raise a 
division and go with it at once to France. That was denied, 
but he sent his four sons. When one of them was wounded 
and the other killed the pathetic answer of this bereaved 
patriot was, "Better so, than that they should not have 
gone." 



362 THEODORE EOOSEVELT 

I was in the Senate during the whole of his Presidency 
and saw him nearly every day. It was a delight to visit 
the Executive office or to meet him in the closer associa- 
tions of the White House. He was the most outspoken of 
public men. As I was entering his room one morning a Sen- 
ator was coming out. This Senator had, made some request 
of the President which had angered him. He shouted to me 
so the Senator could hear him and everybody else : "Do you 
know that man?" I answered, "Yes, he is a colleague of 
mine in the Senate." "But," the President shouted, "he is 
a crook." Subsequent events proved the President correct, 
the man came within the clutches of the criminal law. 

Two of our ex-Presidents are still a force with their painty 
and the people. They are Jefferson and Jackson. Jefferson's 
influence was because of his versatility, political foresight 
and a literary talent. Jackson's by his iron will and com- 
mand of men. Mr. Roosevelt united in himself all the 
power, talent and force of these two remarkable leaders. 

He was intensely human. He had no airs nor fads nor 
frills. His cordiality was infectious, his friendship never 
failed. No man of his generation has so long held public 
esteem and confidence with continuing admiration and ex- 
pectation. His work in the world was great and greatly 
done. It is a commonplace when a great man dies to say : 
"It is not for his co-temporaries to pass judgment upon him, 
that must be left to posterity and to the historian after the 
passions of his time have been allayed." There are only two 
exceptions to this .maxim, one is Washington, the other is 
Roosevelt. The testimony at the time about Washington 
is the same as the judgment of posterity. With this mag- 
nificent fighter, this reckless crusader, this hard-hitter, the 
world is stilled and awed when the news of his death is 
flashed over wires and cables, but the instant voice of friend 
and enemy is the srfme. All recognize the purity of his 
motives, the unselfishness of his work and his imadulter- 
ated Americanism. His last expression sent to a public 
meeting in New York, the evening before he died, is the 
thought upon whose realization rests the security of our in- 
stitutions and. the future of our country. It is that there 
is no place in our land for divided allegiance. Every citi- 
zen must be wholly American. 

Bishop Wilson, who had just come from the great 



APPRECIATION ADDRESSES 363 

work he had rendered his country in France, made a 
powerful address. The following is his estimate of 
Colonel Roosevelt : 

The flags of the nation are at half-mast and the bells of 
the cities have tolled out their solemn announcement that 
one, who for eight years bad occupied the Presidency of the 
Great Republic, has passed from us. Beyond the formal 
recognition of the announcement, however, of'this event, the 
sorrow is registered in the heart of the world. Theodore 
Roosevelt represented in his personality the North and the 
South and the rugged loyalty to conscience of Holland, 
while the sunlight upon the mountain peaks of America, and 
the broad sweeping winds of her prairies, and the vibrant 
life of her cities were wrought together, with the culture 
of her schools and the reverence of her churches, in the 
fine ideals which for sixty years dominated his life. He was 
a comrade of men. There was no condition in which they 
lived into which he was not willing to enter, that he might 
understand the problems which they fought to solve and 
weigh the burdens under which they toiled. There was bo 
monotony of peaceful days, no danger of war troubled times 
was sufficient to discourage or disconcert him. He despised 
no groups of men, however lowly; he feared none, however 
lordly. No barrier, or race, or mountain, or tongue, or sea 
confined him. He was a comrade to all the world because 
he was a brother to humanity. But where he was 
welcomed as comrade, he was likely to continue as 
leader. 

There was a vitality In his thought, a keenness to 
his vision, which enabled him to penetrate the dis- 
guise of the superficial and feel the lure of the long 
road. There was an assertion of conscience in expressed 
hatred -of sham and of unreality, only equalled by 
his avowed love for reality and truth. His words quiv- 
ered and blazed as he waged conflict with wrong, or as he 
assumed the advocacy of right. They ran like the tide of 
the sea. Measured from the base of his convictions to the 
altitudes of his ideals, he was the tallest American since 
the days of Lincoln, probably the best known citizen of the 
world in which he lived, and the best loved. His door stood 
open to the weak and to the mighty, to the individual and 



364 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

to the multitude, for his whole career seemed based upon the 
belief that the other man might easily add to the store of 
his knowledge, or help in rendering knowledge more effec- 
tive in operation, -and as the door stood open for the en- 
trance of others, so it stood open for the going forth of 
himself. 

Sometimes it seemed to the friend or enemy that he 
was taking part in the affairs of the country, or of the 
world beyond, the limit of a fine propriety, but nothing on 
any side of any sea was foreign to him, while it concerned 
the welfare of men. If the ear of the too critical hearer 
missed the quality of the highest wisdom in what he said, 
or if, from a mere observer's place of aloofness- it seemed 
that action lacked discretion, no one who came near enough 
to hear his word, or felt the impact of his personality, could 
doubt either the friendship- for men or that, in what he said, 
he was seeking to follow the light as it was given to him 
to see the light. Whatever else he was, he. was no "reed 
shaken by the wind," he was likely to hold steadfastly to 
the way on which the light fell, and that steadfastness and 
conviction was not ossified self-will. There was in his love 
of certain good, in his wrath against certain evil the fast- 
ness of the hills, and in his dealing with all things an un- 
disguised constancy, but where movements of the times 
wrought change in the great outstanding facts of civiliza- 
tion, he was never unresponsive. Among his most recent 
words were those in which he came to advocate a union of 
America and Great Britain, a measure which would have 
been impossible in his thinking even five years ago. He was 
the towering American of our day, but, in his Americanism, 
the desire for his country's opulence, by commercial exploit, 
was not the first thing. It was the relation of America to 
the life of the American, the responsiveness of America to 
the claims of justice, the position of America among the 
nations of the world which he sought, and all the power of 
conviction and of ideal had their consummate expression in 
what he said during these last great years in which the 
processes of dissolution have convulsed civilization as when 
the foundations of the deep are broken up, but in which 
also new possibilities have come to light even as when out 
of the sea new mountains lift their heads. The words of 
this great American, backed by his offer of service, by his 
sacrifice in the willing surrender of his best loved to the 



APPRECIATION ADDRESSES 365 

peril of the field, can never be forgotten. His stalwart 
Americanism wrought for the stabilizing of those very con- 
ceptions of ethical ideals for which he stood, the sure 
foundation of the world's welfare, however nations may be 
leagued or humanity be united. 

Standing, as we do, so near to the day of his departure, 
we cannot yet feel that he is gone away. Our personal 
friendship is so assertive that perhaps it is impossible for 
us rightly to voice our judgment of him in his broader rela- 
tions to the nation *r the world. We recognize the immense 
forcefulness of his life, his friendship for all things worthy, 
his contribution ta the city, the state and nation, his loyalty 
to learning, his reverence for religious things, his comrade- 
ship with men, his discipleship of the Master, and bowing 
in sorrow, not lessened because in every land where the 
eun is shining men mourn with us, we lift our hearts in 
thankfulness that such a man has lived, and having lived 
we rejoice thaf his influence cannot be buried. Lovers of 
home, and native land, friends of order and the common 
good, pilgrims on -the way, comrades in the great adventure 
of the better world, we are conscious of his presence as we 
sing of another great soul marching on. 

Appropriate resolutions were prepared and read by 
Rev. G. W. Roesch expressing appreciation and sym- 
pathy which were sent to the family of Colonel Roose- 
velt, Old members say that the service was the most 
impressive one held in fifty years. 



HENRY CABOT LODGE'S MEMORIAL 
ORATION 



CHAPTER XXVII 

HENRY CABOT LODGE'S MEMORIAL 
ORATION 

SUNDAY, February 9th, was set apart by our 
nation as the Roosevelt Memorial Day. The 
services and tributes paid were world-wide. 
There was an impressive service in Westminster Ab- 
bey. The service held in the American church in 
Paris was attended by President Wilson, Secretary 
Lansing, and other distinguished Americans. In other 
cities of Europe and other countries befitting exercises 
were held. In nearly every farm district, village and 
city of our own country audiences met to sing, to 
weep and to talk about the great hero and leader 
who had been taken away. Of course the most im- 
pressive service in America was the one appointed by 
Congress which was held in the House of Representa- 
tives. This was the first time in a generation that 
the officials, legislative, executive and judicial 
branches of the government, the heads of the military 
and naval establishments, together with the diplomatic 
representatives of nations, convened in a state memor- 
ial service for a private citizen. No more appropriate 
selection of a speaker could have been made than that 
of Senator Henry Cabot Lodge, a friend of Mr. Roose- 
velt at Harvard and throughout his life. While he 
was President of the United States Mr. Roosevelt 

369 



370 THEODOEE EOOSEVELT 

made a speech at a Harvard dinner in which he said, 
"I shall not speak of the junior senator, another Har- 
vard man, Cabot Lodge, because it would be difficult 
for me to discuss in public one who is my closest, 
staunchest, and most loyal personal friend." 

Senator Lodge's oration was a superb one, rising in 
grandeur to the man and the hour, which is the most 
that could be said of it. After reviewing the bio- 
graphical details of the life of his friend, Mr.' Lodge 
continued : 

There was no hour down to tbe end when Theodore Roose- 
velt would not turn aside from everything else to preach 
the doctrine of Americanism, of the principles and the faith 
upon which American government rested, and which all true 
Americans should wear in their heart of hearts. He was a 
great patriot, a great man; above all, a great American. 
His country was the ruling, mastering passion of his life 
from the beginning even unto the end. 

What a man was is ever more important than what he 
did, because it is upon what he was that all his achieve- 
ment depends and his value and meaning to his fellow men 
must finally rest. 

Theodore Roosevelt always believed that character was 
of greater worth and moment than anything else. He pos- 
sessed abilities of the first order, which he was disposed to 
underrate, because he set so much greater store upon the 
moral qualities which we bring together under the single 
word "character." 

Let me speak first of his abilities. He had a powerful, 
well-trained, ever-active mind. He thought clearly,, inde- 
pendently, and with originality and imagination. These 
priceless gifts were sustained by an extraordinary power of 
acquisition, joined to a greater quickness of apprehension, a 
greater swiftness in seizing upon the essence of a question, 
than I have ever happened to see in any other man. His 
reading began with natural history, then went to general 
history, and thence to the whole field of literature. He had 
a capacity for concentration which enabled him to read 
with remarkable rapidity anything which he took up, if 



MEMORIAL ORATION 371 

only for a moment, and which separated him for the time 
being from everything going on about him. The subjects 
upon which he was well and widely informed would, if 
enumerated, fill a large space, and to this power of acquisi- 
tion was united not only a tenacious but an extraordinary 
accurate memory. It was never safe to contest with him 
on any question of fact or figures, whether they related to 
the ancient Assyrians or to the present-day conditions of 
the tribes of central Africa, to the Syracusan Expedition, 
as told by Thucydides, or to protective colorings in birds 
and animals. He knew and held details always at command, 
but he was not mastered by them. He never failed to see 
the forest on account of the trees Dr tho city on account 
of the houses. 

He made himself a writer, not only of occasional ad- 
dresses and essays, but of books. He had the trained thor- 
oughness of the historian, as he showed in his history of 
the War of 1812 and of the "Winning of the West," and 
nature had endowed him with that most enviable of gifts, 
the faculty of narrative and the art of the teller of tales. 
He knew how to weigh evidence in the historical scales and 
how to depict- character. He learned to write with great 
ease and fluency. He was always vigorous, always ener- 
getic, always clear and forcible in everything he wrote — 
nobody could ever misunderstand him — and when he al- 
lowed himself time and his feelings were deeply engaged he 
gave to the world many pages of beauty as well as power, 
not only in thought but in form and style. At the same 
time he made himself a public speaker, and here again, 
through a practice probably unequaled in amount, he be- 
came one of the most effective in all our history. In speak- 
ing, as in writing, he was always full of force and energy ; 
he drove home his arguments and never was misunderstood. 
In many of his more carefully prepared addresses are to be 
found passages of impressive eloquence, touched with imagi- 
nation and instinct with grace and feeling. 

He had a large capacity for administration, clearness of 
vision, promptness in decision, and a thorough apprehension 
of what constituted efficient organization. All the vast 
and varied work which he accomplished could not have been 
done unless he had had most exceptional natural abilities, 
but behind them, most important of all, was the driving 
force of an intense energy and the ever-present belief that a 



372 THEODORE EOOSEVELT 

man could do what he willed to do. As he made himself 
an athlete, a horseman, a good shot, a bold explorer, so 
he made himself an exceptionally successful writer and 
speaker. Only a most abnormal energy would have enabled 
him to enter and conquer in so many fields of intellectual 
achievement. But something more than energy and de- 
termination is needed for the largest success, especially in 
the world's high places. The first requisite of leadership 
is ability to lead, and that ability Theodore Roosevelt pos- 
sessed in full measure. Whether in a game or in the hunt- 
ing field, in a fight or in politics, he sought the front, where, 
as Webster once remarked, there is always plenty of room 
for those who can get there. His instinct was always to 
say "come" rather than "go," and he had the talent to 
command. 

His also was the rare gift of arresting attention sharply 
and suddenly, a very precious attribute, and one easier to 
illustrate than to describe. This arresting power is like 
a common experience, which we have all had on entering 
a picture gallery, of seeing at once and before all others a 
single picture among the many on the walls. For a moment 
you see nothing else, although you may be surrounded with 
masterpieces. In that particular picture lurks a strange, 
capturing, gripping fascination as impalpable as it is unmis- 
takable. Roosevelt had this same arresting, fascinating 
quality. Whether in the Legislature at Albany, the Civil 
Service Commission at Washington, or the police commission 
in New York, whether in the Spanish War or on the plains 
among the cowboys, he was always vivid, at times startling, 
never to be overlooked. Nor did this power stop here. He 
not only without effort or intention drew the eager atten- 
tion of the people to himself, he could also engage and 
fix their thoughts upon anything which happened to inter- 
est him. It might be a man or a book, reformed spelling 
or some large historical question, his traveling library or 
the military preparation of the United States, he had but 
to say, "See how interesting, how important, is this man 
or this event," and thousands, even millions, of people would 
reply, "We never thought of this before, but it certainly is 
one of the most interesting, most absorbing things in the 
world." He touched a subject, and it suddenly began to 
glow as when the high-power electric current touches the 
metal and the white light starts forth and dazzles the on- 



MEMORIAL ORATION 373 

looking eyes. We know the air played by the Pied Piper 
of Hamelin no better than we know why Theodore Roose- 
velt thus drew the interest of men after him. We only 
know they followed wherever his insatiable activity of mind 
invited them. 

Men follow also most readily a leader who is always there 
before them, clearly visible and just where they expect him. 
They are especially eager to go forward with a man who 
never sounds a retreat. Roosevelt was always advancing, 
always struggling to make things better, to carry some 
much-needed reform, and help humanity to a larger chance, 
to a fairer condition, to a happier life. Moreover, he 
looked always for an ethical question. He was at his best 
when he was fighting the battle of right against wrong. 
He thought soundly and wisely upon questions of expedi- 
ency or of political economy, but they did not rouse him 
or bring him the absorbed interest of the eternal conflict 
between good and evil. Yet he was never impractical, never 
blinded by counsels of perfection, never seeking to make 
the better the enemy of the good. He wished to get the best, 
but he would strive for all that was possible even if it 
fell short of the highest at which he aimed. He studied the 
lessons of history, and did not think the past bad simply 
because it was the past, or the new good solely because it 
was new. He sought to try all questions on their intrinsic 
merits, and that was why he succeeding in advancing, in 
making government and society better, where others who 
would be content with nothing less than an abstract perfec- 
tion, failed. He would never compromise a principle, but he 
was eminently tolerant of honest differences of opinion. He 
never hesitated to give generous credit where credit seeme<l 
due, whether to friend or opponent, and in this way he 
gathered recruits and yet never lost adherents. 

The criticism most commonly made upon Theodore Roose- 
velt was that he was impulsive and impetuous; that he 
acted without thinking. He would have been the last to 
claim infallibility. His head did not turn when fame came 
to him and choruses of admiration sounded in his ears, for 
he was neither vain nor credulous. He knew that he made 
mistakes, and never hesitated to admit them to be mistakes 
and to correct them or put them behind him when satisfietl 
that they were such. But he wasted no time in mourning, 
explaining, or vainly regretting them. It is also true that 



374 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

the middle way did not attract him. He was apt to go far, 
both in praise and censure, although nobody could analyze 
qualities and balance them justly in judging men better 
than he. He felt strongly, and as he had no concealments 
of any kind, he expressed himself in like manner. But ve- 
hemence is not violence, nor is earnestness anger, which 
a very wise man defined as a brief madness. It was all 
according to his nature, just as his eager cordiality in meet- 
ing men and women, his keen interest in other people's care 
or joys, was not assumed, as some persons thought who did 
not know him. It was all profoundly natural, it was all 
real, and in that way and in no other was he able to meet 
and greet his fellowmen. He spoke out with the most 
Unrestrained frankness at all times and in all companies. 
Not a day passed in the Presidency when he was not guilty 
of what the trained diplomatist would call indiscretions. 
But the frankness had its own reward. There never was a 
President whose confidence was so respected or with whom 
the barriers of honor which surround private conversation 
were more scrupulously observed. At the same time, when 
the public interest required, no man could be more wisely 
reticent. He was apt, it is true, to act suddenly and de- 
cisively, but it was a complete mistake to suppose that he 
therefore acted without thought or merely on a momentary 
Impulse. When he had made up his mind he was resolute 
and unchanging, but he made up his mind only after much 
reflection, and there never was a President in the White 
House who consulted not only friends but political oppo- 
bents and men of all kinds and conditions more than Theo- 
dore Roosevelt. •: When he had reached his conclusion he 
acted quickly and drove hard at his object, and this it was, 
probably, which gave an impression that he acted some- 
times hastily and thoughtlessly, which was a complete mis- 
apprehension of the man. His action was emphatic, but 
emphasis implies reflection not thoughtlessness. One can- 
not even emphasize a word without a process, however 
slight, of mental differentiation. ^ 

The feeling that he was impetuous and impulsive was 
also due to the fact that in a sudden, seemingly unexpected 
crisis he would act with great rapidity. This happened 
when he had been for weeks, perhaps for months, consider- 
ing what he should do if such a crisis arose. He always 
believed that one of the most important elements of sue- 



MEMORIAL ORATION 375 

cess, whether in public or in private life, was to ^^ow what 
one meant to do under given "^cumstances^ If be saw the 
nossibilitv of perilous questions arising, it was his practice 
L mnk over'^carefully Just how he would act under cer- 
tain contingencies. Many of the contingencies never arose 
NOW and then a contingency became an actuality, and then 
he was ready. He knew what he meant to do he acted 
at once, and some critics considered him i^Petuous im- 
pulsive, and, therefore, dangerous, because they did not 
know that he had thought the question all out beforehand, 
vlry many people, powerful elements in the community, 
regarded him at one time as a dangerous radical, bent 
upon overthrowing- all the safeguards of ««^^^t^^f^°^^.f ^^■ 
ning to tear out the foundations of an ordered liberty. As 
a matter of fact, what Theodore Roosevelt was trying to do 
was to strengthen American society and ^'^f "^^°^ ^«^t^^- 
ment by demonstrating to the American people that he was 
aiming at a larger economic equality and a more generous 
industrial opportunity for all men. and that any combina- 
tion of capital or of business, which threatened the control 
of the government by the people who made it, was to be 
curbed and resisted, just as he would have ^^^ted an 
enemy who tried to take possession of the city of Washing- 

^"^He had no hostility to a man because he had been 
s'^iccessful in business or because he had accumulated a for- 
tune If the man had been honestly successful and used his 
fortune wisely and beneficently, he was regarded by Theo- 
dore Roosevelt as a good citizen. The vulgar hatred of 
wealth found no place in his heart. He had but one stand- 
ard, one test, and that was whether a man. rich or poor, 
was an honest man, a good citizen, and a good American 
He tried men, whether they were men of "big business 
or members of a labor union by their deeds, and in no other 
way The tyranny of anarchy and disorder, such as is now 
desolating Russia, was as hateful to him as any other 
tyranny, whether it came from an autocratic system like 
that of Germany or from the misuse of organized capital. 
Personally he believed in every man earning his own liv- 
ing and he earned money and was glad to do so ; but he 
had no desire or taste for making money, and he was en- 
tirely indifferent to it. The simplest of men in his own 
habits, the only thing he really would have liked to have 



376 THEODORE EOOSEVELT 

done with ample wealth would have been to give freely 
to the many good objects which continually interested him. 

Theodore Roosevelt's power, however, and the main source 
of all his achievement, was not in the offices which he held, 
for those offices were to him only opportunities, but in the 
extraordinary hold which he established and retained over 
great bodies of men. He had the largest personal follow- 
ing ever attained by any man in our history. I do not 
mean by this the following which comes from great politi- 
cal office or from party candidacy. There have been many 
men who have held the highest offices in our history by 
the votes of their fellow countrymen who have never had 
anything more than a very small personal following. By 
personal following is meant here that which supports and 
sustains and goes with a man simply because he is him- 
self ; a following which does not care whether their leader 
and chief is in office or out of office, which is with him and 
behind him because they, one and all, believe in him and 
love him and are ready to stand by him for the sole and 
simple reason that they have perfect faith that he will 
lead them where they wish and where they ought to go. 
This following Theodore Roosevelt had, as I have said, in 
a larger degree than anyone in our history, and the fact 
that he had it and what he did with it for the welfare of 
his fellowmen have given him his great place and his 
lasting fame. 

This is not mere assertion; it was demonstrated, as I 
have already pointed out, by the vote of 1912, and at all 
times, from the day of his accession to the Presidency on- 
ward, there were millions of people in this country ready 
to follow Theodore Roosevelt and vote for him, or do any- 
thing else that he wanted, whenever he demanded their sup- 
port or raised his standard. It was this great mass of sup- 
port among the people, and which probably was never larger 
than in these last years, that gave him his immense influ- 
ence upon public opinion, and public opinion was the weapon 
which he used to carry out all the policies which he wished 
to bring to fulfillment and to consolidate all the achieve- 
ments upon which he had set his heart. This extraordinary 
popular strength was not given to him solely because the 
people knew him to be honest and brave, because they were 
certain that physical fear was an emotion unknown to him, 



MEMORIAL ORATION 377 

and that his moral courage equaled the physical. It was 
not merely because they thoroughly believed him to be sin- 
cere. All this knowledge and belief, of course, went to 
making his popular leadership secure; but there was much 
more in it than that, something that went deeper, basic ele- 
ments which were not upon the surface which were due 
to qualities of temperament interwoven with his very being, 
Inseparable from him and yet subtle rather than obvious 
in their effects. 

All men admire courage, and that he possessed in the 
highest degree. But he had also something larger and 
rarer than courage, in the ordinary acceptation of the word. 
When an assassin shot him at Milwaukee he was severely 
wounded ; how severely he could not tell, but it might well 
have been mortal. He went on to the great meeting await- 
ing him and there, bleeding, suffering, ignorant of his fate, 
but still unconquered, made his speech and went from the 
stage to the hospital. What bore him up was the dauntless 
spirit which could rise victorious over pain and darkness 
and the unknown and meet the duty of the hour as if all 
were well. A spirit like this awakens in all men more than 
admiration, it kindles affection and appeals to every gen- 
erous impulse. 

Very different, but equally compelling, was another qual- 
ity. There is nothing in human beings at once so sane 
and so sympathetic as a sense of humor. This great gift 
the good fairies conferred upon Theodore Roosevelt at his 
birth in unstinted measure. No man ever had a more 
abundant sense of humor — joyous, irrepressible humor — and 
it never deserted him. Even at the most serious and even 
perilous moments if there was a gleam of humor anywhere 
he saw it and rejoiced and helped himself with it over the 
rough places and in the dark hour. He loved fun, loved 
to joke and chaff, and, what is more uncommon, greatly en- 
joyed being chaffed himself. His ready smile and con- 
tagious laugh made countless friends and saved him from 
many an enmity. Even more generally effective than his 
humor, and yet allied to it, was the universal knowledge 
that Roosevelt had no secrets from the American people. 

Yet another quality — perhaps the most engaging of all — 
was his homely, generous humanity which enabled him to 
speak directly to the primitive instincts of man. 



378 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

He dwelt with the tribes of the marsh and moor, 

He sate at the board of kings ; 
He tasted the toil of the burdened slave 

And the joy that triumph brings. 
But whether to jungle or palace hall 

Or white-walled tent he came, 
He was brother to king and soldier and slave 

His welcome was the same. 

He was very human and intensely American, and this 
knit a bond between him and the American people which 
nothing could ever break. And then he had yet one more 
attraction, not so impressive, perhaps, as the others, but 
none the less very important and very captivating. He 
never by any chance bored the American people. They 
might laugh at him or laugh with him, they might like 
what he said or dislike it, they might agree with him or 
disagree with him, but they were never wearied of him, and 
he never failed to interest them. He was never heavy, 
laborious, or dull. If he had made any effort to be always 
interesting and entertaining he would have failed and been 
tiresome. He was unfailingly attractive, because he was 
always perfectly natural and his own unconscious self. And 
so all these things combined to give him his hold upon the 
American people, not only upon their minds, but upon their 
hearts and their instincts, which nothing could ever weaken, 
and which made him one of the most remarkable, as he was 
one of the strongest, characters that the history of popular 
government can show. He was also — and this is very re- 
vealing and explanatory, too, of his vast popularity — a man 
of ideals. He did not expose them daily on the roadside 
with language fluttering about them like the Thibetan who 
ties his slip of paper to the prayer wheel whirling in the 
wind. He kept his ideals to himself until the hour of fulfill- 
ment arrived. Some of them were the dreams of boyhood, 
from which he never departed, and which I have seen him 
carry out shyly and yet thoroughly and with intense per- 
sonal satisfaction. 

He had a touch of the knight errant in his daily life, 
although he would never have admitted it ; but it was there. 
It was not visible in the medieval form of shining armor 
and dazzling tournaments, but in the never-ceasing effort 
to help the poor and the oppressed, to defend and protect 



MEMORIAL ORATION 379 

women and children, to right the wronged and succor the 
downtrodden. Passing by on the other side was not a mode 
of travel through life ever possible to him ; and yet he was 
as far distant from the professional philanthropist as could 
well be imagined, for all he tried to do to help his fellow 
men he regarded as part of the day's work to be done and 
not talked about. No man ever prized sentiment or hated 
sentimentality more than he. He preached unceasingly the 
familiar morals which lie at the bottom of both family and 
public life. The blood of some ancestral Scotch covenanter 
or of some Dutch reformed preacher facing the tyranny of 
Philip of Spain was in his veins, and with his large oppor- 
tunities and his vast audiences he was always ready to 
appeal for justice and righteousness. But his own personal 
ideals he never attempted to thrust upon the world until 
the day came when they were to be translated into reali- 
ties of action. 

When the future historian traces Theodore Roosevelt's 
extraordinary career he will find those embodied ideals 
planted like milestones along the road over which he 
marched. They never left him. His ideal of public service 
was to be found in his life, and as his life drew to its close 
he had to meet his ideal of sacrifice face to face. All his 
sons went from him to the war, and one was killed upon 
the field of honor. Of all the ideals that lift men up, the 
hardest to fulfill is the ideal of sacrifice. Theodore Roose- 
velt met it as he had all others and fulfilled it to the last 
jot of its terrible demands. His country asked the sacri- 
fice and he gave it with solemn pride and uncomplaining 
lips. 

This is not the place to speak of his private life, but 
within that sacred circle no man was ever more blessed in 
the utter devotion of a noble wife and the passionate love 
of his children. The absolute purity and beauty of his 
family life tell us why the pride and interest which his 
fellow countrymen felt in him were always touched with 
the warm light of love. In the home so dear to him, in his 
sleep, death came, and — 

So Valiant-for-Truth passed over and all the trumpets 
sounded for him on the other side. 



■ADDRESS BY CHARLES E. HUGHES 



CHAPTER XXVIII 
ADDRESS BY CHARLES E. HUGHES 

ONE of the most important memorial services 
in America was the one held in New York, 
February 9th, at the Union Lea^e Club, and 
the address was made by Honorable Charles E. 
Hughes. It was statesmanlike and masterful. By 
the courtesy of the Republican Club we take copious 
extracts from the address for this chapter. The orator 
said: 

The heroes of democracy are the springs of its life; its 
sources of vigor and confidence. We increasingly realize in 
the midst of our abounding activities, that it is the man and 
not the mechanism that counts, and that the hosts of the 
industrious, the efficient, and the just must depend for their 
triumphs on the worth and strength of leadership. We are 
not paying tribute to the distinction conferred by office, even 
the highest office ; nor are we commemorating mere achieve- 
ments although extraordinary and varied. Our tribute is of 
unstinted admiration and deep affection for one who was 
great in office, but even greater out of office, whose unfail- 
ing faith, courage and energy caused personality to eclipse 
achievement; whose constant industry and self-discipline, 
whose sound democratic instinct, elemental virtues and 
wholesome living, whose restless, alert and indomitable 
spirit, impatient at all obstacles, made him more than any 
other the representative of free America — the typical Amer- 
ican not only of the nineteenth century, but of the twen- 
383 



384 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

tieth — the embodiment of patriotic ardor, of lofty ideals, of 
practical sense and invincible determination. Deeply con- 
scious of the irreparable loss of his immediate leadership, 
we turn to. consider the fructifying influence of a life which 
has no parallel in our annals. "He is great," says Emer- 
son, "who is what he is from nature, and who never re- 
minds us of others." 

The life of Theodore Roosevelt presents strange contrasts 
in its constant escape from the limitations of environment. 
He was city bred, but he became a naturalist of eminence 
and a hunter of no mean prowess. He was reared in the 
most exclusive circles of the East, but he breathed the free 
spirit of the Western plains. He was educated in private 
schools, and his early training was amid cultural surround- 
ings tending to separate him from the masses, but he was 
closer to the thought of the plain people than any leader 
in America. As a boy, he was of delicate physique, but 
by the careful discipline of years he made himself an 
athlete. He spent about two-thirds of his life in public 
office, but never was any one less ofiicial or less mastered 
by routine. He was engrossed with the grave practical 
concerns of his time, but he was one of its most prolific 
authors. He was in politics from the beginning of his ca- 
reer, but he was a master and not a servant of the politi- 
cal order. In every activity, the spirit of Theodore Roose- 
velt escaped the limitations of all associations and tradi- 
tions and emerged dominating, triumphant, and he thus rep- 
resents to us neither locality nor vocation — not the author, 
or the traveler, or the naturalist, not the political leader 
or the officer, not even the statesman or the President, but 
the man — who in his human worth and virile personality 
transcended all distinctions of place and circumstance, 
whose defects were only the shadows which made his vir- 
tues stand out the more impressively, and whose memory 
will ever remain an abiding inspiration. 

It would be impossible on this occasion even briefly to 
slietch the seven years and a half of President Roosevelt's 
administration, still less to do justice to his achievements. 
There were certain distinctive features, however, which may 
be noted. He surrounded himself with the strongest men 
and delighted in their friendship and counsel. He found no 
sacriflce of leadership in the intimate association with the 
best minds of his day. He nourished his strength by such 



CHARLES E. HUGHES 385 

intimacy and, with all his eagerness and readiness, he wel- 
comed the best advice he could get. It was characteristic 
of Roosevelt that his friends in every department of activ- 
ity were the ablest, the keenest, the most expert, the most 
vital. To him democracy did not mean the triumph of the 
common-place or the rule of ignorance, but the best talent 
engaged in the service of all. Hay, Root, Taft and Knox 
gave high distinction to his Cabinet, while in every depart- 
ment he was constantly seeking to maintain enlightened 
policies and the highest efficiency. 

In international affairs, with such Secretaries as Hay and 
Root, there was constantly displayed a rare sagacity and the 
nation enjoyed a greatly enhanced prestige. President Roose- 
velt knew how to avoid difficulties as well as to overcome 
them, and the archives of diplomatic correspondence, and 
his personal notes to our Ambassadors, will in time disclose 
the extraordinary influence which he helpfully exerted. 
Every foreign Chancellery knew that he meant what he 
said, and that his words were important because they were 
the sure harbinger of deeds. With such a man, there was 
no doubt as to action and no temptation to carry things too 
far. The "big stick" was an assurance of peace. He dared, 
but not recklessly. And he always had the gift of humor. 
The story is told that when one expressed the hope that 
he would not embroil us in any foreign war, he said, "What, 
a war? With me cooped up in the White House? Never, 
gentlemen, never." 

The first case before the Hague Court was brought before 
it through his instrumentality, and this set the precedent 
for many others. The Alaska Boundary question was 
settled through the decision of a Joint Commission, remov- 
ing, as he has well said, "the last obstacle to absolute agree- 
ment between the two peoples." But this great service to 
the cause of peace was in his contribution to the settle- 
ment of the Russo-Japanese war in 1905. He conducted the 
preliminaries with consummate skill. On his invitation, the 
delegations of the two nations met at Portsmouth, New 
Hampshire. Neither side got all it wanted; he felt that 
each side had as regards himself a feeling of injury, but 
this, as he told us, he did not resent. In appreciation of 
this service, he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. 

He also acted on his own responsibility in sending the 
fleet around the world. He knew that "neither the English 



386 THEODOEE ROOSEVELT 

nor the German authorities believed that it was possible 
to take a fleet of great battleships around the world." But 
his prime purpose was "to impress the American people, and 
this purpose was fully achieved." It established the popular 
belief in the American Navy, and if in the world war our 
navy has demonstrated an efficiency unsurpassed, let us 
not forget — while due credit is withheld from none — that 
naval efficiency is not produced in a year and that the feat 
of the past two years, which has been in large part the 
essential basis of the complete victory of the cause of civili- 
zation, is directly due to the foresight and intelligent 
vigilance of Theodore Roosevelt. 

When we turn to domestic affairs, we realize that Presi- 
dent Roosevelt came to national leadership at a time which 
needed his championship of the common welfare. It is diffi- 
cult now to think of the day when lawyers of ability and 
distinction were asserting the unconstitutionality of the 
exercise by Congress, through an appropriate agency, of the 
rate making power in its regulation of interstate commerce. 
The conclusions then reached after strenuous contests, are 
now the most familiar postulates. For President Roose- 
velt, the commerce power — till then but little used — was the 
instrumentality of an aroused opinion determined that the 
Republic should not be the victim of the opportunities it 
had created, and that greed, defying all control, should not 
make mockery of justice. The record of accomplishment 
is impressive — especially as so much w?s essayed in a com- 
paratively new field. The Hepburn bill as to railroad rates, 
the Pure Food bill, -the Meat Inspection bill, the Employers' 
Liability bill, the establishment of the Bureau of Corpora- 
tions; his trust prosecutions, illustrate his efforts for the 
public welfare against what he regarded as the serious evils 
in our nationl life. The public had found an undaunted 
champion, and his blows in their interest fell thick and fast. 

But he did not assail the foundations of society. He sought 
to purge, not to aestroy; to secure the essential conditions 
of progress, not to impair stability. It was never -his no- 
tion that he must burn down the house to get rid of the 
rats. He always sought what he believed to be the "just 
middle." It was his endeavor to cut out the abuses of 
property and to hold the scales even between "corrupt and 
unscrupulous demagogues and corrupt and unscrupulous re- 
actionaries." "To play the demagogue for purposes of self 



CHARLES E. HUGHES 387 

Interest," said he, was "a cardinal sin against the people in 
a democracy." 

In the effort to secure a just solution of the problems 
of labor, he was indefatigable. To this end he used all his 
authority, legal and moral. It was the moral authority of 
his office that he exerted in the settlement of the anthracite 
coal strike in 1902. He was confronted, as Judge Gray said, 
with a crisis more grave and threatening than any that had 
occurred since the Civil War. Through the moral coercion 
of public opinion, directed by the President, an arbitra- 
tion was agreed to and the dangers were averted. The 
nation never forgot this service or the way in which it 
was rendered. It was a service whicTi only a man of rare 
courage and initiative could have performed. And for it, 
as Judge Gray said. President Roosevelt deserved unstinted 
praise. 

In his relation to labor, he was actuated by the profound 
belief that we need never suffer from a class war, that "em- 
ployers and employees have overwhelming interests in com- 
mon both as partners in industry and as citizens of the Re- 
public, and, that when these Interests are apart, they can 
be adjusted by so altering our laws and their interpreta- 
tion as to secure to all members of the community social 
and industrial justice." But he realized that In order that 
prosperity be passed around, it is necessary that "the pros- 
perity shall exist," and that in order that labor shall receive 
its fair share in the division of rewards, it is neceesary 
"that there shall be rewards to divide." 

Of first importance, in his judgment, was the conserva. 
tion of our natural resources, which he emphasized by call- 
ing the conference of State Governors in May, 190S. The 
administration of the national forests, the conservation of 
mines, the improvement of waterways, and the develop- 
ment of water power — all were subjects on which he thought 
deeply and to which he constantly directed public attention 
for the purpose of promoting the common welfare and of 
avoiding the selfish exploitation of the nation's riches. 

He thrived on the hard work of the Presidency and left 
office in the full tide of health and energy. His relaxation 
was a long hunting: trip in Africa, and a tour of Europe in 
which ne made numerous addresses and received the most 
distinguished honors. One of our Ambassadors, who was 
with him on the occasion of King Edward's funeral, has 



388 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

said that to see Theodore Roosevelt, the adequate democrat, 
furnishing the centre of interest as he discoursed in his free 
and entertaining manner to a delighted group of Kings, was 
to get a new vision of the essential worth of manhood which 
needed no trappings to establish its dignity. 

On his return to the United States, he soon resumed the 
political activity which he could no more dispense with 
than he could forego his daily food. Those who supposed 
that he could have remained out of politics must construct 
another Roosevelt to tit their fancy. To the true Roosevelt, 
the earnest expression of political views, and the endeavor 
to put them into effect, were inevitable. One occasion or 
another might be presented, but there could be no question 
that in response to the insistent demand of his own nature, 
no less than in answer to the call of others, he would be 
found in the political arena. 

Of the bitterness and animosities that were engendered, 
of the divison that resulted, of the party catastrophe which 
followed, there is no need now to speak. We are deeply 
grateful that this period of the estrangement of old friends, 
of naisunderstanding and strife, came to an end, and that in 
the commdn cause of liberty, which demanded the full 
strength of the nation, a common patriotic endeavor re- 
stored the old-time amity, the wounds were healed, the party 
integrity restored, the friendships renewed, and the Republi- 
can Party once more rejoiced in the leadership of Theodore 
Roosevelt. 

After the labors of campaigns a trip of exploration was 
taken in South America in the early part of 1914. The 
spirit of adventure was as indomitable as ever. The fires 
of youth were unquenched. But in his adventures, Roose- 
velt was always seeking not mere pleasure, but to add to 
the sum of knowledge. His achievements as an explorer 
were indubitable, but he did not seek to magnify them. As 
Steffansson tells us, Roosevelt thus expressed himself in a 
letter written shortly before his death : "I do not make any 
claim to the front rank among explorers . . . but I do 
think that I can reasonably maintain that compared with 
other Presidents, Princes and Prime Ministers, I have done 
an unusual amount of useful work." 

But this trip of exploration, useful as it was from a scien- 
tific point of view, was a fateful trip for the explorer. He 



CHARLES E. HUGHES 389 

never fully recovered from the fever with which he was 
then attacked, and he was unable to free his system of the 
seeds of disease. 

Soon after his return to this country, the great war 
broke out. He was one of the first to appreciate its sig- 
nificance and our duty. His soul revolted at the wrongs of 
Belgium, and he poured out the vials of. his scorn upon the 
neutrality which ignored the call of humanity and sacri- 
ficed the self-respect of the American Republic. When the 
Lusitania was sunk, in May, 1915, he* demanded action with 
"immediate decision and vigor." "Centuries have passed," 
said he, "since any war vessel of a civilized power has 
showm such ruthless brutality toward non-combatants, and 
especially toward women and children." None of the "old- 
time pirates" Tiad "committed murder on so vast a scale." 
"We earn, as a nation," he cried, "measureless scorn and 
contempt if we -follow the lead of those who exalt peace 
ab'ove righteousness, if we heed the voices of those feeble 
folk who bleat to high heaven that there is peace, when 
there is no peace. For many months our government has 
preserved between right and wrong a neutrality which 
would have excited the tremulous admiration of Pontius 
Pilate — the arch-typical neutral of all times." Theodore 
Roosevelt, to his lasting "honor "be it said, was right, and had 
his voice prevailed and had the country earlier shaken off 
its lethargy, millions of lives and countless treasure might 
have been spared. Better late than never, but it is costly 
to be late. 

Of inestimable value to his country had been his service 
in ofiice, but now — a private citizen — he was to perform an 
even greater service. To a hesitant administration, and to 
a people lulled into a false security and lending ear to an 
unworthy pacifism, he preached the gospel of preparedness. 
Throughout the ciountry, journeyed this courageous apostle 
of right-thinking, having no credentials but those of his 
own conscience and patrioitism, and by his pitiless invective 
he literally compelled action. Back of all that was done 
was the pressure of the demand of Roosevelt. "For eighteen 
months," said he in the early part of 1916, "with this world- 
cyclone before our eyes, we as a nation have sat supine 
without preparing in any shape or way. It is an actual 
fact that there has not been one soldier, one rifle, one gun, 
one boat, added to the American Army or Navy so far, 



390 THEODOEE EOOSEVELT 

because of aBything that has occurred in this war, and not 
the slightest step has yet been taken looking to the neces- 
sary preparedness. Such national short-sightedness, such 
national folly, is almost inconceivable." He denounced the 
proposed program as a make-believe program, as one en- 
tirely inadequate to our needs. "It is," he said, "a proposal 
not to do something effective immediately, but to do some- 
thing entirely ineffective immediately and to trust that our 
lack will be made good in succeeding years." 

He also demanded spiritual preparedness in a deepening 
sense of unity. He preached the gospel of undiluted and un- 
hyphenated Americanism. "The foreign-born population 
of this country," said he, "must be an Americanized popu- 
lation. No other kind can fight the battles of America 
either in war or peace. It must talk the language of its 
native born fellow citizens, it must possess American citi- 
zenship and American ideals." "There is no such a thing 
as a hyphenated American who is a good American. The 
only man who is a good American is the man who is an 
American and nothing else." "I," he said, "I am straight 
United States." 

And when finally we could stand no longer the brutal 
assaults of Germany and declared that a state of war ex- 
isted, he felt that his place was in that holiest of wars, and 
he was ready to die fighting for his country. When he asked 
to be allowed to go to France, he had no thought of a re- 
turn in glory. I well remember the night, shortly after 
the declaration of war, when at the close of a meeting at 
the Union League Club, he talked to a little company of 
his heart's wish. "I sha\l not return," he said, "my sons 
may not return, my grandchildren may be left alone" — 
and no one could doubt that he meant what he said. But 
the greatest desire of his life was denied him. We can 
but faintly imagine the measure of his disappointment, but 
we may conjecture that it had no small share in hasten- 
ing the fln-al break-down. His country at war, and Roose- 
velii at home! That was the cruelest blow that fate could 
deal him. 

But if he could not fight for liberty and humanity on 
the Western Front, he could fight with pen and voice at 
home. There was not a moment lost. With increasing vigor 
he demanded adequate forces, adequate equipment, speed 
and eflaciency. His lash knew no mercy, but it was a neces- 



CHARLES E. HUGHES 391 

sary lasli. As it was, we were just in time. How late we 
sliould liave been had it not been for Roosevelt, God only 
knows ! But who can doubt the value of the service of that 
insistent demand in xaaking it possible that we. should ar- 
rive at the front, in forces, in time to make the last great 
German drive a failure? He quickened the national con- 
sciousness ; he developed the sense of unity, and when the 
country awoke he was the natural leader of an aroused 
America. His priceless service at home made all the world 
his debtor. If America by its aid at the critical moment 
made victory possible, it was the spur of Roosevelt that 
assured that aid, and while we acclaim the splendid service 
of officers and men, the pride of our army and navy, and of 
the host of willing workers, and are gratified at the vast 
achievements of the nation, let it not be forgotten that 
yonder in his last resting place in Oyster Bay lies our great- 
est hero of the war. He incarnated the spirit of America, 
and when he passed away, and controversy was no more 
and enemies were silenced, the country with one voice paid 
its -tribute to the patriot who, without office or commission, 
had supplied the leadership which had not faltered or erred, 
and had fought to maintain the nation's honor. 

It is with pleasure that we remember the family life of 
this stout-hearted American. Worthy in public life, he dig- 
nified the American home. He spoke of his father as 
the best man he had ever known, and the spirit of his 
father's house blessed his own. An ideal husband and father, 
his home was the beautiful abode of all that was worthy 
and true. He transmitted his own courage to his four 
sons, and all of his sons won distinction at the front. The 
last sacrifice for his country which his father longed to 
make in the battle for liberty his son Quentin did make, 
and in his heroic death achieved an imperishable honor of 
his own. 

It is small wonder that such a career as that of Theo- 
dore Roosevelt has a lasting fascination for young men. 
There was nothing sordid or commonplace or unclean to 
mar it. His courage, steadfastness and faith, his deeds of 
daring, his physical prowess, his resourcefulness, his es- 
ploits as a hunter and explorer, his intellectual keenness, 
his personal charm, and his dominating patriotic motive, 
make their irresistible appeal, and in the shaping of the 



392 THEODOKE ROOSEVELT 

ideals of the American youth for generations to come his 
most important service is yet to be rendered. 

He left us when we could ill afford to spare him. Against 
all that tended to destroy our government, against all that 
is sinister and corrupt, against tyranny of every sort, 
against the exploitation of the weak and all injustice, 
against class hatred and class pride, against the enfeebling 
influence of pacifism, against the impractical schemes of 
visionaries, against every tendency to anarchy and Bolshev- 
ism, Theodore Roosevelt would have led the fight with 
his invincible common sense and his sound Americanism. 

In the coming struggle we can win the victory only by 
heeding his repeated Injunction : 

"All of us, no matter from what land our parents came, 
no matter in what way we may severally worship our Cre- 
ator, must stand shoulder to shoulder in a united America 
for the elimination of race and religious prejudice. We 
must stand for a reign of equal justice to both big and 
small. We must insist on the maintenance of the American 
standard of living. We must stand for an adequate national 
control which shall secure a better training of our young 
men in time of peace, both for the work of peace and for 
the work of war. We must direct every national resource, 
material and spiritual, to the path not of shirking diflft- 
culties, but of training our people to overcome diflSculties. 
Our aim must be, nor to make life easy and soft, not to 
soften soul and body, but to fit us in virile fashion to do a 
great work for all mankind. ... In our relations with the 
outside world we must abhor wrongdoing, and disdain to 
commit it, and we must no less disdain the base spirit which 
tamely submits to wrong-doing. Finally and most important 
of all, we must strive for the establishment within our 
own borders of that stern and lofty standard of personal 
and public morality which shall guarantee to each man his 
rights, and which shall insist in return upon the whole 
performance by each man of his duty both to his neighbor 
and to the great nation whose flag must symbolize in the 
future as it has symbolized in the past the highest hopes 
of all mankind." 




■^ (H 



ESTIMATES OF WILL H. HAYS AND 
GIFFORD PINCHOT 



CHAPTER XXIX 

ESTIMATES OF WILL H. HAYES AND 
GIFFORD PINCHOT 

BEING struck with a beautiful extract of an 
address on Theodore Roosevelt by Mr. Will H. 
Hays, chairman of the Republican National 
Commission, before the joint session of the Indiana 
State Legislature, February 7th, I wired Mr. Hays 
at his home in Sullivan, Indiana, asking for the text 
of that address. Immediately I received a telegram 
granting the request and use most of the address as 
follows : 

"I have kept the promise that I made to myself 
when I was 21. That promise was to live my life 
to the hilt until I was 60, and I have kept that 
promise." 

These words Theodore Roosevelt said to his sister a few 
days before he died. And this, indeed, he did. 

To follow this man's life is a succession of steps from 
peak to peak; to describe his accomplishments is a review 
of superlatives. He had more knowledge about more things 
than any man, amazing all with whom he came in con- 
tact by the breadth of his knowledge, prodigious beyond 
comparison. He was intensely human in the freedom of his 
unselfishness, and his name is synonomous with courage 
and activity. He was as imaginative as a poet, as appeal- 
ing as a child, loving to fight and fight close, at grips in 
the clinches, but with the deepest personal affections and 

395 



396 THEODORE EOOSEVELT 

the broadest love* for all men. He wanted only real things. 
While always progressive and reaching out, quick to think 
and quick to act. he sought the practical method which 
would bring results. His alert and intense nature was al- 
ways in tune to the needs of the moment, but he went 
deeper into the fundamentals than any one of his period. 
In office, while wise men were asking what might best 
be done, Roosevelt would reply, The best has been done — 
and he was right. He would approach with the same 
assurance and equal ease the settlement of the Russian- 
Japanese war or a bout with a prize fighter, a social recep- 
tion or the construction of the Panama Canal. As early 
as 1902 he spoke the language that the Kaiser understood, 
and never ceased to speak that language while he lived. 

There may have been doubt in Roosevelt's mind as to the 
outcome of his position in the Venezuelan matter, but there 
was never any wavering in his mental processes as to his 
duty in the premises nor any vacillation in his movements 
in execution. He summoned Dr. Holleben, the German 
Ambassador, to the White House and told him that if Ger- 
many would not consent to arbitrate in ten days Dewey 
would be ordered to Venezuela, When he did not hear from 
von Holleben for a week he called him and told him that 
instead of three days more it would be two days more — 
and within thirty-six hours the Kaiser yielded. What a 
characteristic Roosevelt action ! With equal ease and the 
same assurance he undertook the Panama Canal, after four 
centuries of failure, and made possible its completion to 
the practical satisfaction of the civilized world, when with- 
out him it would still be a subject of diplomatic discussion. 
And the voice that called his own babies about him and that 
cried for justice to little children was the same voice that 
thundered, "Perdicaris alive or Rasuli dead." 

His great fight for preparedness and Americanism in 
this country against professional pacifism and parlor Social- 
ism was not the development of his later years, nor did it 
grow out of his conviction of the necessities of the recent 
period. Vv'hen he was Assistant Secretary of the Navy, in 
1897, he cried for naval preparedness for the Spanish- 
American war, which he believed inevitable; he overhauled 
the navy ; he got and spent the great appropriations foe 
ammunition for target practice, and in his cable to Dewey, 
on February 25, 1898, two months before war was declared 



ESTIMATES OF FRIENDS 397 

on Spain, in which the first step toward American occupa- 
tion of the Philippine Islands was taken, he performed as 
naturally as when he left the New York Legislature and 
aU behind him to go West and prepare physically for his 
career, and as fully as when, like a voice in the wilder- 
ness, In 1914, 1915 and 1916, he cried out, "Prepare, pre- 
pare, prepare!" 

By some he was called impetuous, yet when McKihley 
died he made the statement, "I promise to take over and 
continue 4;o completion, so far as it lies within my abilities 
to do so, the policies of the great President who now lies 
dead." He was called war-like by some— yet he cham- 
pioned the cause of international arbitration of world dif- 
ferences of opinion and claims, both in and out of oflSce, 
practiced what he preached by submitting the Pious Fund 
case, and kept the great part of the world peaceful during 
his regime. He was for peace when peace was right, but 
if to win right for right's sake war was necessary, then he 
was for war, or for whatever else was needed; and, above 
all, he was for America eternally, and there he was the 
severest partisan. 

I have heard the story that when Roosevelt decided very 
early to take part in politics his family was not immediately 
in sympathy with that form of public service; he was told 
by them that he would find no one at the meeting which 
he purposed attending but "grooms, liquor dealers and low 
politicians." "Well," Roosevelt replied, "if that is so then 
they belong to the governing class, and you don't, and I 
mean if I can to be of the governing class." And he was 
of the governing class from thait moment until he died. 
He first governed himself, and at no time did he fail to 
apply to his own personal life, to his thought and to his 
actions, the same code he applied to others. Weak physi- 
cally, he made himself strong. Whenever wrong, he made 
himself right. With an entire absence of any false pride, 
he would consult his friends, urge suggestions, and freely 
adopt them. He is said to have had from his earliest youth 
this characteristic of absorbing good from every one and 
everything with which he came in contact. He had it to 
the fullest in the wisdom of his maturity. He would dis- 
cuss himself in as frank manner as he would discuss his 

opponents. His career as a member of the Legislature, as 

Civil Service Commissioner, Police Commissioner, Assistant 



398 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

Secretary of the Navy, Colonel of Rough Riders, Governor 
of New York, Vice-President and President of the United 
States, as author, historian, naturalist, hunter, sportsman, 
husband, father, citizen, carried through it all as the one 
controlling motif a consistent determination to do what 
he thought was right. It mattered not one whit how that 
course affected himself or anyone else or anything if he 
thought it was right he did it — and he did it to the hilt. 

We cannot say that he was a typical American, because 
he was too unlike to be typical; he had no counterpart, 
he was distinctive, unique 'and original ; the foremost Ameri- 
can, yes ; the leader of leaders, yes ; but above all, was he 
the supreme typlfication of that intangible thing we love to 
think of as the American spirit. 

Theodore Roosevelt was my friend. This friendship, of 
short duration as years are counted, was of a complete- 
ness and intensity that does not reckon time and that 
brought the profoundest appreciation, that shall continue 
while life lasts. The more intimate our relations the deeper 
grew my regard, for the better one knew him the greater 
must have been one's appreciation. And I never left him 
that I did not consciously marvel yet again at the man. 

We measure men by comparison. A man is great or small 
as he rises above or sinks below the level of the generation 
to which he belongs. When he is gone, we can estimate his 
size by the space left vacant. By either of these standards, 
what a man was this man ! He was powerful in influence 
because men believed in him ; he moved among his fellows 
daily with the most unexampled virility, giving and taking, 
and men believed him. No higher tribute can be paid him. 

I aiSrm that to love truth for truths' sake is the principal 
part of human perfection in this world. That, above all 
other things, this man did. He was honest in act, honest 
in word, and honest in thought. The crime of shame was 
not his. He was himself, with no pretense. He recognized 
the perfidity -of pretense and the wickedness of make- 
believe, and he abhorred fhem with the wholesome hate 
they merit. What he thought, he said ; and what he said, 
he believed. Honest himself, he attributed honesty to every- 
one with whom he came in contact. With him, every man 
was innocent until twice proven guilty. Then again, he 
would stand in faith, always giving another chance. But 
when convinced of the guilt of -man or thing, he would see 



ESTIMATES OF FRIENDS 399 

to the eradication with that unerring judgment, fearless 
dispatch and satisfying completeness approached by no one 
else. 

"Never hit unless you have to — but when you hit, 
end It." 

We are wont to think of this man, with his outdoor mind 
and his two fists, as a man's man. He was that. He was 
that above all other things. Yet his chivalry would have 
graced any court. In this, too, there was no pretense. He 
was true to his manhood. His own mother, wife, sister, 
and daughters had to him made all women sacred. He 
moved with the knowledge that a good woman is the one 
perfect workman-ship of God — and he acted accordingly. 
He loved his home. He recognized it as the one and only 
glimpse of heaven on earth afforded man — and he acted 
accordingly. 

Deeply he appreciated the contribution of American 
women to this w^ar, and often I have heard him express 
this with the enthusiasm it merits. And let none of ua 
forget in passing just how great has been this contribution 
and how great our obligation. It is the women who have 
stood the severest strain, and second only to the soldiers Is 
the credit due them. 

And how this soldier thought the thoughts, sensed the 
wants and sympathized with the needs of the soldiers, and 
how full was his proper appreciation of them ! Unable to go 
himself, always his heart was with his four boys and their 
comrades, and our entire army was to him as were his four 
boys. He would say to me: "They say food will win the 
war. Liberty Bonds will win the war, thrift stamps will win 
the war. They won't. They will all help win the war. But 
fhe war will be won by the fighting men at the fighting front 
and in no other way." And he was right. And this man's 
appreciation of our soldiers is the kind of appreciation that 
this country feels and will not forget. 

It would be my wont to say of Colonel Roosevelt that 
which he would have me say of him. Could we consult 
him now, I know it would be his wish, above all things, 
that we draw something from his example of benefit to the 
people he loved so much. 

The lesson of the patriotism of Theodore Roosevelt, which 
will live forever, is his monument. This patriotism was not 



400 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

the kind that is born of extremities; it was Bot that fire, 
splendid as it is, which burns in the souls of men only 
when their country is in danger. His patriotism was not 
the patriotism stirred only by martial music — it was the 
patriotism of good citizenship, at the fireside, the plow, the 
mart, in low places and in high places, in season and out 
of season ; it was the patriotism which caused him to make 
his country's welfare his own business and to interest him- 
self continually in the practical politics of his community. 
He believed and acted always the patriotism of peace as 
well as of war, and it moved the man to measure his every 
act, from his earliest manhood to the date of his death, by 
how, in his good judgment, he could do the most for his 
country's welfare. This is the only patriotism which, in the 
last analysis, is worth while. 

I was- with Theodore Koosevelt on the morning he re- 
ceived word of Quentin's death. I was with him the next 
day at Saratoga, when, with his heart literally crushed, 
he interpolated in a speech he was reading, saying: "The 
finest, the bravest, the best of our young men have sprung 
eagerly forward to face death for the sake of a high ideal ; 
and thereby they have brought home to us the great truth 
that life consists of more than easy-going pleasure, and more 
than hard, conscienceless, brutal striving after purely ma- 
terial success ; that while we must rightly care for the body 
and the things of the body, yet that such care leads no- 
where unless we also have thought for our own souls and 
for the souls of our brothers. When these gallant boys, on 
the golden crest of life, gladly face death for the sake of 
an ideal, shall not we who stay behind, who have not been 
found worthy of the grand adventure, shall not we in our 
turn try to shape our lives so as to make in this country 
the ideal which in our hearts we acknowledge, and in the 
actual workaday business of our world, come a little nearer 
together, and make this country a better place to live in 
for these men, and for the women who sent these men to 
battle and for the children who are to come after them." 

He has gone ahead on -the journey of a thousand years. 
It is not fitting and he would not have this occasion tinged 
at all with grief that the common lot should come to him, 
but rather pride and joy that his task was done so worth- 
ily. Yet so great was the personality and so deep the im- 
press of this man upon all, it is impossible for men to con- 



ESTIMATES OF FRIENDS 401 

template his passing without grief as poignant as the im- 
mediate prostration that was consequent upon his. departure. 
While we bow in submission, as we do, we would have had 
things otherwise if we could. "Where," said the despairing 
Villon, "where are the snows of yesteryear?'^ "The snows 
of yesteryear are in the stream, in cloud and rain, in sap 
of tree and bloom of flower, in heart and brain of talent and 
of beauty." Nothing is lost. So, the energies of this man 
having touched into activity forces influencing still others 
and others, will move on forever. 

I am sure the religion and philosophy that guided him 
through his life did not fail him at his death. And let us 
not forget that strength in the man which in the last analy- 
sis was greatest of all. Theodore Roosevelt was a man of 
great faith ; he was a Christian gentleman. 

As he saw the world receding, I am convinced that the 
only sadness he had was the thought of separation from 
those he loved and from the service to the people he served 
so well. 

Death is not sleep — death is a great awakening. For him 
the night is done, and it is written that, *'Joy cometh in the 
morning." 

Theodore Roosevelt— student, scholar, legislator, executive, 
citizen of the world, patriot, friend, gentleman Christian, 
master mind, great heart, pure soul. 

Theodore Roosevelt's last written message, pencilled 
by his own hand a few hours before his death, ad- 
dressed in the form of a memorandum for "Will H. 
Hays, chairman of the Republican National Commit- 
tee, was published for the first time in the March 
North American Review in a facsimile reproduction. 
The memorandum is as follows : 

Hays : 

"See him; he must go to Washington for 10 days; see 
Senate and House; prevent split on domestic policies." 

Colonel Roosevelt was in the habit, it was said, of 
making brief memoranda for his stenographer or for 
himself. The foregoing was found on his desk the 
morning following his death with his pencil along- 



402 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

side. As Chairman Hays was in the West at the time, 
it probably was the intention of the Colonel to have 
his stenographer get Mr. Hays on the 'phone, or in 
some way promptly communicate with him. 

This memorandum indicates that Mr. Roosevelt was 
recognized as the head of the Republican party of the 
nation and that he had lai.d down a well-defined policy 
of action and was conferring with Mr. Hays, whom 
he so trusted and loved, with reference to it. 

ADDRESS OF GIFFORD PINCHOT 

At the memorial service held in Philadelphia a 
brilliant address was made by Gifford Pinchot, who 
worked so enthusiastically and successfully with Presi- 
dent Roosevelt in the conservation of national re- 
sources in forest, field and stream, etc. With his per- 
mission we quote from it as follows: 

We who loved Roosevelt have not lost him. The qualities 
we treasured in him, his loyalty, his genial kindness, his 
unwearied thoughtfulness for others, the generosity which 
made him prefer his friends in honor to himself, his tender- 
ness with children, his quick delight in living, and the firm 
soundness of his life's foundations, are potent with us yet. 
The broad human sympathy which bound -to him the mil- 
lions who ^ever saw his face, his clean courage and self- 
forgetful devotion to his country, the tremendous sanity of 
his grasp on the problems ot the nation and the world, and 
the superb simplicity and directness of his life and thought 
still live as the inspiration and the basis for -the new and 
better world which is to come. 

The people Iwved Roosevelt because he was like them. In 
him the common qualities were lifted to a higher tension 
and a greater power, but they were still the same. What he 
did plain men understood and would have liked to do. The 
people loved him because his thoughts, though loftier, were 
yet within their reach, and his motives were always clear 
in their sight. They knew his purposes were always right. 
To millions he was the image of their better selves. 



ESTIMATES OF FRIENDS 403 

Roosevelt was the greatest preacher of righteousness in 
modern times. Deeply religious beneath the surface, he 
made right living seem the natural thing, and there was no 
man beyond the reach of his preaching and example. In 
the sight of all men, he lived the things he taught, and mil- 
lions followed him because he was the clear examplar of his 
teaching. 

Unless we may except his conservation policies, Roose- 
velt's greatest service during his Presidency was the in- 
spiration he gave young men. To them he was the leader 
in all they hoped to be and do for the common good. The 
generation which was entering manhood while he was Presi- 
dent will carry with it to the grave the impress of his 
leadership and personality. 

To the boys of America he was all they hoped to be — a 
hunter, a rider, a sportsman, eager for the tang of danger, 
keen and confident, and utterly unafraid. There was no 
part of his example but was good for boys to follow. Roose- 
velt, half boy till his life's end, yet the manliest of men, of a 
fineness his best friends best understood, was their ideal, 
and will not cease to be because he has passed on. 

To him the unforgivable sin, and there was but one, was 
betrayal of the Interests of his country. The man who 
sinned that sin he neither forgave nor forgot. For opposi- 
tion to himself he cared but little; enemies he had in 
plenty, but they cast no shadow on his soul. He was a gal- 
lant and a cheerful fighter, willing, as he often said, to be 
beaten for any cause that was worth fighting for, and 
whether in defeat or victory, never unbalanced and never 
dismayed. 

Roosevelt lived intensely in his family life. The doer of 
great things himself, and the occasion of great accomplish- 
ment in others, what he did was not done alone. It is but 
right that we should recognize the part played by the strong 
and gentle, wise and loving woman, whose hand was so 
rarely seen, yet still more rarely absent, in all that was 
best in her great husband's finest living and most memorable 
achievements. 

The greatest of executives, he transformed the machinery 
of government with the flame of his own spirit. He was 
his own hardest taskmaster, and always unwilling to ask 
of his men the thing he was not ready to do himself. He 



404 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

was our leader because he was the better man. He worked 
more hours, at higher speed, with wider vision. He trusted 
us, and gave each man his head. Always eager to recognize 
good work and give due credit for it, always ready with 
an excuse for the man who honestly tried and failed, he 
had nothing but scorn and contempt for the man who never 
tried at all. 

Filled with the joy and the spice of living, afraid neither 
of life nor of death, thankful sunshine or rain, never sorry 
for himself, never asking odds of any man or any situation, 
he used the powers he had as only his great soul could use 
them — powers seldom if ever before assembled in one in- 
dividual, but nearly all of them duplicated, one hers, one 
there, within -the knowledge of us all. It was the use his 
soul made of his body and his mind that was the essence 
■^f his greatness. 

The greatest of his victories was his last, his victory over 
the indifference of a people long misled. He was the first 
to see the need for it. To gain it he seemed to throw away 
his future. In the event he won results and earned a name 
which will live while the knowledge of America's part in 
the great war still endures. 

He was the leader of the people because his courage and 
his soundness made him so. More than any man of his time, 
he was loved by those who ought to love him, and hated by 
those who ought to hate him. His ideals, his purposes, his 
points of view, his hostilities,* and his enthusiasms were 
such as every man could entertain and understand. It was 
only in the application of them that he rose to heights be- 
yond the reach of all the rest of us. 

What explains his power? Life is the answer. Life at 
its warmest and fullest and freest, at its utmost in vigor, 
at its sanest in purpose and restraint, at its cleanest and 
clearest, life tremendous in volume, unbounded in scope, yet 
controlled and guided with a disciplined power which made 
him, as few men have ever been, the captain of his souL 
Alert, glad, without meanness and without fear, free from 
arrogance and affectation with few hesitations and few 
regrets, slow to promise but ardent to perform, delighting 
in difficulties, welcoming danger, sensitive to the touch of 
every phase of human existence, yet dominated by standards 
more severely set for himself than for any others, sustained 
by a breadth of knowledge and of sympathy and by an en- 



ESTIMATES OF FRIENDS 405 

durance, both physical and mental, which belonged to him 
alone, Roosevelt lived with a completeness that lesser men 
can never know. 

In Roosevelt, above all the men of his time, the promise 
of the Master was fulfilled, "I came that ye might have 
life, and that .ye might have it more abundantly." 



ESTIMATES OF REV. DR. LYMAN 

ABBOTT AND OF A NEW YORK 

MERCHANT FRIEND 




© Unrler\vO"<l & Underwood, N. Y. 



COLONEL KOOSEVELT AND REV. ALTIIUR JAMES MASON. VICE- 
CHANCELLOR, CAMBRIDGE UNIVEESITY, LONDON, ENG. 



CHAPTER XXX 

ESTIMATES OF REV. DR. LYMAN ABBOTT 
AND OP A NEW YORK MERCHANT FRIEND 

BY the courtesy of the Outlook we print the fol- 
lowing editorial on Theodore Roosevelt by 
Rev. Lyman Abbott, D.D. Few men Mr. 
Roosevelt respected and loved more than Dr. Abbott 
and that affection was fully reciprocated. The fol- 
lowing estimate is of especial value: 

Mr. Roosevelt was to me a wise counselor, a courageous 
comrade, an inspiring personality, and always a loyal and 
considerate friend. Writing on the day of his death and 
under the shadow of a great sorrow, I will not trust my- 
self to give any expression to my personal feeling about 
him, who was the foremost statesman of his time, and, be- 
cause of his sterling virtues, was at once the best beloved 
and the most bitterly execrated of America's public men. 
But I may perhaps do something to interpret to our readers 
the inspiration of his power and the secret of his extraordi- 
nary career. Modern democracy denies the assumption that 
the few must govern and the many must be governed and to 
Aristotle's three forms of government— government by the 
one, by the few, by the many— it is gradually adding a 
fourth : self-government. For in lieu of government by the 
best class in the community over the rest it is substitut- 
ing government by the best in every man over the worser 
elements in every man. 

In my judgment, no man in the history of America, not 
even Abraham Lincoln, did so much as Theodore Roosevelt 
to expedite the era of self-government. 

409 



410 THEODOKE EOOSEVELT 

Entering politics at twenty-two resolved to make it his 
profession, Mr. Roosevelt assumed from the outset that poli- 
tics is the science and practice of government, and that to 
succeed in the science and practice of government would re- 
quire the best that was in him. He was ambitious, not to 
govern, but to lead. He brought to his earliest cam- 
paign a frankness and a courage which were novelties In 
American politics. He had a keen sense of moral values 
and a dominating faith in moral forces. With an inspired 
instinct which men call genius, he perceived that virtue 
and intelligence are characteristic of the American people, 
and to that virtue and that intelligence he habitually ap- 
pealed — never to their prejudices or their passions, though 
he never lacked the courage to rebuke those prejudices 
and confront those passions. His methods of appeal 
were sometimes ingenious, but they were always 
courageous, and his aim was always the same. When 
he was Civil Service Commissioner and Congress at- 
tempted to thwart Civil Service reform by cut- 
ting down appropriations, he appealed to the people by 
abandoning examinations in those districts whose repre- 
sentatives had voted for reducing appropriations and con- 
tinuing examinations in those districts whose representatives 
had supported Civil Service reform. When he was Police 
Commissioner, by his fairness he won the loyal support of 
every honest policeman, and by the result proved that the 
rascals who had brought disrepute upon the police adminis- 
tration were in a minority. When he was elected Governor 
of the State of New York, he announced his intention to 
consult with both Mr. Low and Mr. Piatt, and faced the 
hostility both of the Old Guard and of the radical reformers 
because he did not wish to govern the Republican party, 
but to lead it. When he became President, he was equally 
ready to confer with a cowboy or a college president, a labor 
leader or a millionaire. His tests of character were not con- 
ventional; they were not learning, or culture, or social posi- 
tion, or political influence, or wealth. They were the com- 
mon virtues — courage, frankness, political honesty, personal 
purity. His messages to Congress were messages to the 
American people, and it has been well said of them that 
they were "quite as often treatises on the moral principles 
of government as they were recommendations for specific 
legislation or administrative policies." "I am accused of 



ESTIMATES OP FRIENDS 411 

preaching," he once said to a group of his friends; "but 
I have got such a bully pulpit." 

This habit of appeal to the best in every man kept Mr. 
Roosevelt in what his critics sometimes called the "middle 
of the road." He denounced corruptionists, whatever their 
position or political party. He attacked, often in the same 
speech, "malefactors of great wealth" and "undesirable citi- 
zens." He urged on the Senate a general arbitration treaty 
more radical than it was willing to adopt, and at the same 
time insisted that until an International Supreme Court is 
firmly established the nation must have an army and navy 
adequate to protect the rights of its citizens ; and when 
such a Court is established the nations must be prepared 
to maintain its decrees against any recalcitrant nation. The 
last-published letter he wrote illustrated the judicial poise 
of a nature always controlled by a passion for even-handed 
justice. "We should insist," he said, "that if the immigrant 
who comes here in good faith becomes an American and 
assimilates himself to us, he shall be treated on an exact 
equality with every one else." At that time he also said: 
"There can be no divided allegiance here. Any man who 
says he is an American, but something else also — he is not 
an American at all. We h'ave* room for but one flag, the 
American flag, and this excludes the red flag." 

This appeal of Mr. Roosevelt to the American people for 
justice, equal rights, and a fair opportunity for all gives 
symmetry and cohesion to his varied administrations as 
Civil Service Commissioner. Police Commissioner, Assistant 
Secretary of the Navy, Lieutenant-Colonel in the Army, Gov- 
ernor of New York, and President of the United States. It 
made him as bitter enemies in influential quarters as any 
public man in American politics has ever known ; but it 
also made him the most widely admired and best-loved 
American of his time. 

And it did more. It went far toward converting American 
politics from a trade to a profession ; it inspired his col- 
leagues and his party associates ; it summoned into political 
activity followers in both parties and in all sections of the 
country. Men had thought of politics as a traffic which 
no man could enter without dishonor. His life proved to 
them that the highest success is possible to honor, courage, 
and purity if mated to ability. It raised the ideals and the 
standards of public life for the entire American people. Its 



412 THEODOEE ROOSEVELT 

influence in creating the genuine and self-sacrificing patri- 
otism which called the nation into this world war with a 
voice which love of ease and dread of war could not re- 
sist cannot be estimated. And it has done more than any 
other one influence, if not more than all other influences 
combined, to inspire the citizens of this country with a real 
faith in the intelligence and virtue of their fellowmen, and 
so in the practicability of that self-government which is the 
foundation of a true democracy because of a true brother- 
hood of man. 

A MERCHANT FRIEND DESCRIBES 
ROOSEVELI 
I called on a New York City merchant and said to 
him, "I am writing a book on Theodore Roosevelt, as 
a tribute of love for him. Remembering what op- 
portunities you had to know him, and what mutual 
affection there was between you, I have come to ask 
as a favor that you give me a brief pen sketch of him 
as you saw him, to go into my volume." He replied, 
"You know I am a business man and not an author. 
Besides, I am just starting on a long ocean voyage 
and have every moment of time on shipboard full of 
business laid out for me. And yet how happy I should 
be if I were able to do what you ask, and put my 
little tribute of love in with yours. I will see ; if the 
spirit should mo\e me, you may hear from me. * ' Sure 
enough, about three weeks after, I received a letter 
from him on shipboard, in which he enclosed the fol- 
lowing description of our hero friend: 

Roosevelt's character was so many sided, his activities 
and accomplishments were so diverse, that an analysis of 
him is very difficult. Roosevelt can be best understood by 
saying that he was a symbol of America. He had all of 
the qualities of the American nation; all of the qualities 
developed to almost ideal form, and if he had weaknesses, 
they were ones that were in common with those of America. 
The national characteristics, such as love of right or jus- 



ESTIMATES OF FRIENDS 413 

tice, of liberty, the nation's virility, and its great spirit of 
progress, were all expressed in this typical American. It 
was natural that Roosevelt should be an emblem of America, 
as he was a product of American ideals and at the same 
time the greatest producer of American ideals for a 
generation. 

Roosevelt had the courage to do what he felt was right, 
always, and entirely oblivious of consequences. He never 
said anything for effect. Whatever he said, he said because 
it was in him to say it. Whatever he did, he did because 
he could not help doing it. His thought, his spirit had to 
have full expression, and it burst from him in every word 
and every action. 

He had a quality which was so peculiarly one of the 
American nation that we call special attention to it. It is 
the great power of assimilation. America, as no other na- 
tion, has the power to assimilate whatever comes in con- 
tact with it. Men come from every nation of the world and 
are almost immediately absorbed and assimilated. They 
take her ideals, adopt her mode of thought, her language, 
and after a time even assume her facial and physical traits. 
Roosevelt had this same great faculty. He molded the 
thought, he affected the character, he uplifted the spirit of 
almost everyone that he touched. No one who approached 
him with an open mind went away without consciously or 
unconsciously taking with him something of Roosevelt. I 
believe that he gave more to the individual men of America 
than any man in its history. I was very much impressed by 
this assimilating power one day at his home at lunch. He 
had asked to his home a Spanish poet, a Catholic philoso- 
pher, and a Southern lady, a widow of one of his old 
friends. What widely divergent views of life the three had, 
but before lunch was over all had caught Roosevelt's spirit 
and they were all thinking with Roosevelt, and all feeling 
that they had found something in common with him that 
must bind them permanently to him. During the luncheon 
the Spanish poet brought up the subject of classical and 
modern Spanish literature; the thought occurred to me that 
the Colonel would not be prepared to discuss this subject. 
On the contrary, however, he knew Spanish literature thor- 
oughly and discussed it with ease and with clearly defined 
opinions that showed that he had not only read, but had 
studied it comprehensively. There was something so sincere 



414 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

in his approach to a subject, something so fair In its dis- 
cussion, and something so deeply human in his whole atti- 
tude to it that one could not help falling in with the har- 
mony of his thought and of his spirit. 

The atmosphere of his home was so intimate and fully 
laden with his deepest feeling that one treats it with some 
hesitation. He lived simply but with dignity, without for- 
mality but with the forms that are part of good manners 
and refinement. His home at Oyster Bay, on a hill over- 
looking the waters of the -Sound, had the form of a Long 
Island cottage but the feeling of a palace. The main room 
of the house was a large living-room or library, where 
Colonel and Mrs. Roosevelt received, and the Colonel told 
me that he tried to keep in this room only the tilings of 
which he was fondest. Its walls were lined with shelves 
that contained books that were his constant companions. He 
was a voracious reader and from the thousands of books 
that he read he selected for this room only those from which 
he did not want to be separated, and with these books he 
had a familiarity that was remarkable. In a conversation 
or discussion on any subject he would say, "That reminds 

me of a character in ," or "Let us see what says 

of that," and would go to one of the long rows of books, 
select the one that he wanted and turn directly to a page 
and read the passage to which he had referred. With a 
remarkable memory he seemed to carry in his mind the 
contents of all of these books. 

Besides his books he had about him in his living room 
a few objects that he prized, especially among which I re- 
member a bronze by Frederick Remington, which was pre- 
sented to him by the Rough Riders, which he never tired 
of admiring. In other rooms of the house he had his 
trophies and gifts, the things that recalled to him varied 
experiences from his hunting expeditions in Central Africa, 
to his visits to the Courts of Europe. Among his trophies 
the one that especially attracted my attention was the butt 
of one of his rifles that was shredded by the teeth of a 
mountain lion with whom he had had some dealings at 
close quarters. Among his gifts he enjoyed showing an 
old edition of the Niebelungenlied, which was sent to him 
by William of Germany. It was a very large book and 
scrawled over the whole flyleaf was an original autograph 
verse signed by the Kaiser. This the Colonel would delight 



ESTIMATES OF FRIENDS 415 

in reading aloud to his friends, adding tliat it was perfect 
doggerel, whicli in deed it was. 

Each of the hundreds of relies bore a vivid memory to 
him and suggested anecdotes that he would tell with inde- 
scribable humor, and one marvelled as he did, at the di- 
verse experiences that had been recorded in his life. From 
each experience he seemed to have acquired knowledge, and 
not only this, but had laid it away in the storehouse of his 
memory to be picked out and used at the opportune moment. 

In seeing the -Colonel meet people of all nationalities and 
of all stations in life, his versatility was simply marvellous. 
I shall never cease to be grateful that this great and good 
man ever came into my life and love. 

This portrait so life-like, beside being the tribute of 
a friend, fairly expresses the opinion of tlie business 
men of the United States with reference to Mr. 
Roosevelt. 



ESTIMATES OF GEN. LEONARD WOOD- 
SEC. FRANKLIN K. LANE- 
REV. J. R. DAY 



CHAPTEK XXXI 

ESTIMATES OF GEN. LEONAED WOOD— SEC. 
FRANKLIN K. LANE— REV. J. R. DAY 



I 



WROTE Gen. Leonard Wood asking him for an 
estimate of his dear personal friend, Theodore 
Roosevelt, and received from him the following 
answer : 

"I shall be glad to help. I am sending you a brief 
statement which I sent George Wharton Pepper, of 
Philadelphia. It is short and to the point, and I be- 
lieve will give you what you want. ' ' 
The following is the estimate: 

Theodore Roosevelt's death has brought to many thou- 
sands a feeling of personal sorrow, and to all Americans a 
sense of great and irreparable loss to our country in this 
great crisis. 

We have lost the great leader. Theodore Roosevelt's life 
was one of service for country, for humanity, and for right 
as he saw it. If he feared anything, it was duty undone. 

Honest, 'upstanding, God-fearing, a man of vision, of wide 
experience, with a breadth of human sympathy which em- 
braced all races, all creeds and all lands, he was easily 
the zriost inspiring, and hence the most dominant figure in 
American life since Abraham Lincoln. 

He is dead, but his influence lives after him. In the ex- 
ample of his life and work, in his ideals, we shall ever find 
inspiration for patriotic effort, and incentive to high en- 
deavor. 

He loved the strenuous life with its fierce struggles. He 
knew that words alone are not sufficient and that we must 

419 



420 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

at times meet the organized forces of wrong with the dis- 
ciplined strength of right. 

He loved nature and the wild places of the world ; the 
birds and the animals ; and he understood these as few do. 
He had a clean soul. He loved home, family and friends — 
and above all, his country. 

In war he offered his life freely for his country, his sons 
went into the world's war with his blessing, always thought- 
ful of those under him, and appreciative of the humblest 
service. He had the personal affection and devotion of 
thousands. 

True patriot, best type of American, such was Theodore 
Roosevelt. His spirit •will march in the van of our armies 
in war and strengthen our hearts in the hour of darkness 
and danger. 



ESTIMATE OF SECRETARY LANE 

Secretary Lane mailed me the following lines which 
he had sent to James A. Key, chairman of the Com- 
mittee of Pensions, House of Representatives, highly 
commending a pension of $5,000.00 for Mrs. Roose- 
velt, which pension was unanimously passed by both 
Houses of Congress. Secretary Lane says : 

The impress that Theodore Roosevelt's personality has 
n.ade upon the world does not need emphasis. Whatever 
his fame as a statesman, it can never outrun his fame as a 
man. However widely men may differ from him in mat- 
ters of national policy, this thing men in their hearts would 
all wish, that their sons might have within them the spirit, 
the will, the strength, the manliness, the Americanism of 
Roosevelt. He was made of that rugged and heroic stuff 
with which legend delights to play. The Idylls and the 
Sagas and the Iliads have been woven about men of his 
mold. We may surely expect to see developed a Roosevelt 
legend, a body of tales that will exalt the physical power 
and endurance of the -man and the boldness of his spirit, 
his robust capacity for blunt speech and his hearty com- 
radeship, his live interest in all things living — these will 
make our boys for the long future proud that they are of 



ESTIMATES OF FRIENDS 421 

his race and his country. And no surer fame than this can 
come to any man — to live in the hearts of the boys of his 
land as one whose doings and sayings they would wish to 
make their own. 

ESTIMATE OF DR. DAY 

One of the most masterful Roosevelt Memorial ad- 
dresses was that of Rev. James R. Day, D.D., LL.D., 
Chancellor of Syracuse University. Dr. Day, a giant 
in body and mind, at one time was one of the most 
powerful opponents of President Roosevelt's anti- 
trust policy. He was invited by the New York Legis- 
lature to make a memorial address before it. From it 
we quote the following : 

If ten years ago any one had told me that on this 9th 
day of February I would be found in our State Capitol, by 
your request delivering a eulogy of Theodore Roosevelt, he 
would not have impressed me with his gift of prophecy ! 

But that is Theodore Roosevelt. He was an Impossible 
man, doing impossible things, as no other man could do 
them. You differed with him deeply and radically, and you 
did not change your convictions, but you found that you had 
not been in conflict with him, but with something incidental 
to him. Some men's opinions are all there is of them. One 
opinion and you have the whole man. With Roosevelt a con- 
viction or a doctrine was an incident. While you were fight- 
ing that doctrine he was away into volumes of others, leav- 
ing you to go on with your contentions. He was infinitely 
more than an article of his economical or political creed. 
You could not contend with such a man. Your controversy 
was not with him. 

How to appreciate such a man In just proportions is an 
almost impossible task. 

No man lived a life more exposed to the public eye. He 
never whispered but men were always blundering about 
his motives and the wisdom of his bold, uncompromising ut- 
terances. Where to stand to measure him is the question. 
There is a position among the Himalayas where vast moun- 
tains arise before you. One of them is so far distant that 
you see only its summit. It is the highest of the mighty 



-422 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

range, but you can see only its crown against the sky. You 
cannot see wliere it connects with the earth or what its 
bases are. Another is so near that it overwhelms you and 
you lose all power of measurement. The first is the highest 
mountain in all Asia, if not in the world. The second is 
but little less, but it fills the valley out of which it springs 
with a suddenness that confuses thought and is appalling. 

Washington is that mountain now distant, with its base 
in tradition. Roosevelt is the mountain that fills the valley 
before you and is radiant with refracted and changing light. 
What he is will be the subject of varying opinions and dis- 
cussions as men see the earth connections all visible and 
the far summit towering above us in the clouds, refracting 
colors differing to each angle of vision. 

There is too much of Roosevelt and too many vividly 
related phases of his unusual personality for one to discuss 
philosophically his great character, much less his work as 
a legislator, a soldier and the chief executive of his great 
State and the nation. 

No one fully competent has presented Theodore Roosevelt 
to the world in outline. Certain traits were so bold and 
outstanding that all could discover them as he hurried past 
in the rush of his impetuous course. But it will be years 
before this marvelous man will stand out in the symmetry 
and harmony of all the traits of his character and activity 
that have seemed to many of us as sometimes conflicting 
and inconsistent. 

To measure force requires most delicate instruments and 
great skill. To know men in themselves and in the influence 
of their education, companionship and surroundings is a 
task that often has to be handed over to generations. 

Mr. Roosevelt was a man with whom no one could agree 
in all things and with whom many disagreed in everything. 
He outstrode thinking men. The conservative men could 
not keep pace with him. He violated traditions one minute 
and the next was the reverent defender of the men who 
created them. He renounced his party one hour and the 
next was at its head, the idolized leader and defender. 

Sometimes he attacked constituted forms with violence, 
but he restrained his wrath when demagogues threatened 
disaster. He made no use of anything in his reformatory 
efforts for merely personal political purposes and sometimes 
went too far in defiance of temporizing politics. 



ESTIMATES OF FRIENDS 423 

Study Mr. Roosevelt over a space of sufficient breadth and 
length and the conflicts of his personality harmonize. There 
were certain traits that were high peaks in the range of his 
character. They must be studied above the common level. 

He had great force. And men like force. The timid man 
shrinks from It when it has no visible orbit or is not run- 
ning on steel rails bolted down to a secure roadway. But 
the average man likes force. That is why he chances the 
ditch and death in a motor car or a two thousand feet fall 
from an aeroplane. And force brings things to pass. It 
does not stop, fortunately does not, because of a wreck in 
the ditch or a fall from the clouds. But there is force In 
established orbits when it has taken form and retained 
energy, where it has come out of star mist and is a sun. 

Colonel Roosevelt had force well in hand. It was an en- 
dowment. It was not idly exhausted if sometimes it seemed 
erratic. It did not exhaust those who came in contact with 
It. Its expression was greatest in himself. 

But it was a tremendous magnet. No man drew such 
crowds without arts or tricks on all occasions. They rallied 
to him instinctively. Whether you agreed with him or not, 
he agreed with himself, and you found it difficult to get 
away from his forcible thinking. 

He walked with a firm stride. He chopped a tree like a 
lumberjack on a wager. He liked a horse that would throw 
a good rider. You never heard of his hunting partridges*. 
He hunted lions and tigers. The brook trout did not be- 
guile him. He fished for tarpon and shark. Is it a wonder 
that the virile manhood of America followed such a leader? 
They could disagree with him, but they were forced by 
force to follow him. 

Had he been President when Germany threatened little 
heroic Belgium a challenge would have been hurled across 
the ocean that would have prevented the war, or if not, we 
would have closed it two years sooner. 

Colonel Roosevelt was a courageous man and the people 
like courage. It was not a blustering courage. It was not 
braggadocio. There was no swagger about it. Its highest 
test was in the face of dissenting public opinion. It never 
flinched in the face of the clamor of politics. 

What is right? What ought to be done? That was 
enough. It is certain that men, whether in political agree- 
ment or political opposition, conceded his courage. He was 



424 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

incapable of making the mistake of the trimmer. He never 
cultivated his fortunes or popular favor at the expense of 
his manhood. It is a fatal mistake, which has defeate<i 
many a great man, who was great in all but his courage. 
The people are always sensitive to this characteristic. It is 
as useless as the habit of the ostrich in putting his head 
in the sand to escape his pursuers. 

The people will excuse mistakes, but they have contempt 
for a coward. 

The man who dodges his vote, who hides his convictions 
lest some one disagrees with him, is always detected and 
quickly relegated to the rear. Respect a man who- honestly 
disagrees with you. Despise a man who is afraid of you. 

Roosevelt's courage was an element of strength. It was 
courage to defend an opinion, and it was courage to correct 
a mistake. Moral courage is greater than physical courage. 
"You are scared," said a soldier to a fellow soldier whom 
he saw white and trembling as the battle began. "Yes," 
was the reply, "if you were as scared as I am you 
would run." 

When Roosevelt was about to give an interview on the 
piratical sinking of the Lusitania, an intimate friend, who 
wanted him to answer deliberately, suggested that there 
were four hundred thousand German votes in this country. 
Aroused, he said : "If there were four million I would con- 
demn this fiendish act!" And he gave out that philippic 
which awoke the land to war. 

He was clean. No bribe stuck to his hand. And the people 
like that. His domestic life required no apology. His per- 
sonal life required no explanation nor apology. When he 
was away from home his face was always set homeward, and 
you could no more face him in the other direction than you 
could change the instinct of a carrier pigeon. And the people 
like that. The pure home is the foundation of civilization. 
The noblest thing a'bout Roosevelt is his home life. It was 
a holy example. 

Another trait was the buoyancy and fullness and exuber- 
ance of his life. No man enjoyed life more. And the people 
like that. You may say that it was a radiancy of health. 
We might think, so but for the last two or three years of 
fatal illness. Coming or going from the hospital, wrenched 
with rheumatic pains, burning with fever, he was always 
feeling "bully." It is a great thing in this world of so many 




© I'ndcrwood & I'mlerwond, N. Y. 
COL. ROOSEVELT AS THE NATION WILL ALWAYS REMEMBER HIM. 



ESTIMATES OF FRIENDS 423 

ills and misfortunes and sorrows if one can carry hope on 
the outside and let any remnant of happiness shine through. 

No one can tell the agony of that solitary sorrow when 
a grave was made on a foreign battlefield. But he did not 
ask his fellowmen to help him carry it. He carried no 
ejublem of death. He asked for more things to do, to think 
about and to say. 

He said that he could not expect that four sons could 
go into war with the peril of high explosives, and all re- 
turn. It was the measure of his prompt sacrifice. He was 
driving on, giving his own life to force that W'ar to its con- 
clusions by matching his pen against the sword. 

He must be an intensely narrow partisan who does not 
feel the loss that has fallen upon his country by the death 
of ex-President Roosevelt. He could not be shut out of 
the counsels of his own country. He has sent over words 
that have burned into the brains of the most potent states- 
men at the peace conference. He was tremendously needed 
in his own land in a time when latent Bolshevism and 
slumbering red socialism could be held in restraint only by 
men of the type of Colonel Roosevelt and men of whom he 
was the acknowledged captain. 

It is an hour that calls for brave men, wise men, Ameri- 
can men without a taint or a remote mixture in its loyalty 
and with consecration to the principles of our fathers and 
mothers. Never have we needed as now a recrudescence 
of the old-time Americanism that has been overgrown with 
the poison ivy of imported destructive thought and teach- 
ings of the ignorant that threaten to choke and destroy 
its life. 

We had looked to Colonel Roosevelt as the man whom 
the remnant of thinking men would follow and whose clear 
voice would restrain the mad hordes plunging on behind thvi 
red flag they know not why, a man who would not sacrifice 
his flag to his personal ambition, a man whose words, 
weighed with the artisan and the working man because he 
never used them, but always served them, a man who in his 
one own personality would outnumber the thousands of 
riotous brutes, Hun-like in their instincts, seeking to apply 
the torch to the foundations of all government and law. 



THE GREAT ADVENTURE 



CHAPTER XXXII 
THE GREAT ADVENTURE 

IN the Metropolitan Magazine for last October 
Colonel Roosevelt wrote his famous article, "The 
Great Adventure," every word of which is worth 
its weight in diamonds. It will be read, with deepest 
interest, by people a thousand years from now, as one 
of the greatest essays on the problem of life and death 
in the history of the literature of the world.^ Through 
the courtesy of this magazine we copy it entire for this 
closing chapter: 

Only those are fit to live who do not fear to die; and 
none are fit to die who have shrunk from the joy of life and 
the duty of life. Both life and death are parts of the same 
Great Adventure. Never yet was worthy adventure worthily 
carried through by the man who put his personal safety 
first. Never yet was a country worth living in unless its 
sons and daughters were of that stern stuff which bade 
them die for it at need; and never yet was a country 
worth dying for unless its sons and daughters thbught of 
life not as something concerned only with the selfish 
evanescence of the individual but as a link in the great 
chain of creation and causation, sof that each person is seen 
in his true relations as an essential part of the whole; whose 

429 



430 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

life must be made to serve the larger and continuing life 
of the whole. Therefore it is that the man who is not 
willing to die, and the woman who is not willing to send 
her man to die, in a war for a great cause, are not worthy 
to live. Therefore it is that the man and woman who in 
peace time fear or ignore the primary and vital duties and 
the high happiness of family life, who dare not beget and 
bear and rear the life that is to last when they are in their 
graves, have broken the chain of creation, and have shown 
that they are unfit for companionship with the souls ready 
for the Great Adventure. 

The wife of a fighting soldier at the front recently wrote 
as follows to the mother of a gallant boy, who at the front 
had fought in high air like an eagle, and, like an eagle, 
fighting had died : "I write these few lines — not of con- 
dolence for who would dare to pity you? — but of deepest 
sympathy to you and yours as you stand in the shadow 
which is the earthly side of those clouds of glory in which 
your son's life has just passed. Many will envy you that 
when the call to sacrifice came you were not found among 
the paupers to whom no gift of life worth offering had been 
entrusted. They are the ones to be pitied, not we whose 
dearest are jeoparding their lives unto the death in the 
high places of the field. I hope my two sons will live as 
worthily and die as greatly as yours," 

There spoke one dauntless soul to another! America is 
safe while her daughters are of this kind, for their lovers 
and their sons cannot fail, as long as beside the hearth- 
stones stand such wives and mothers. And we have many, 
many such women ; and their men are like unto them. 

With all my heart I believe in the joy of living; but those 
who achieve it do not seek it as an end in itself, but as a 
seized and prized incident of hard work well done and of 
risk and danger never wantonly courted but never shirked 
when duty commands that they be faced. And those who 
have earned joy, but are rewarded only with sorrow, must 
learn the stern comfort dear to great souls, the comfort 
that springs from the knowledge taught in times of iron 
that the law of worthy living is not fulfilled by pleasure, 
but by service, and by sacrifice when only thereby can 
service be rendered. 
No nation can be great xmless its sons and daughters 



THE GREAT ADVENTURE 431 

have in them the quality to rise level to the needs of heroic 
days. Yet this heroic quality is but the apex of a pyramid 
of which the broad foundations must solidly rest on the 
performance of duties so ordinary that to impatient minds 
they seem commonplace. No army was ever great unless 
its soldiers possessed the fighting edge. But the finest 
natural fighting edge is utterly useless unless the soldiers 
and the junior officers have been through months, and the 
officers of higher command and the general staff through 
years of hard, weary, intensive training. So likewise the 
citizenship of any country is worthless unless in a crisis it 
shows the spirit of the two million Americans who in this 
mighty war have eagerly come forward to serve under the 
Banner of the Stars, afloat and ashore, and of the other 
millions who would now be beside them over seas if the 
chance had been given them and yet such spirit will in the 
long run avail nothing unless in the years of peace the 
average man and average woman of the duty-performing 
type realize that the highest of all duties, the one essential 
duty, is the duty of perpetuating the family life, based on 
the mutual love and respect of the one man and the one 
woman and on their purpose to rear the healthy and fine- 
souled children whose coming into life means that the fam- 
ily and therefore the nation shall continue in life and shall 
not end in a sterile death. 

Woe to those who invite a sterile death ; a death not for 
them only, but for the race; the death which is ensured by 
a life of sterile selfishness. 

But honor, highest honor, to those who fearlessly face 
death for a good cause no life is so honorable or so fruit- 
ful as such a death. Unless men are willing to fight and 
die for great ideals, including love of country, ideals will 
vanish, and the world will become one huge sty of material- 
ism, and unless the women of ideals bring forth men 
who are ready thus to live and die the world of the future 
will be filled by the spawn of the unfit. Alone of human 
beings the good and wise mother stands on a plane of equal 
honor with the bravest soldier; for she has gladly gone 
down to the brink of the chasm of darkness to bring back 
the children in whose hands rests the future of the years. 
But the mother, and far more the father, who flinch from 
the vital task earn the scorn visited on the soldier who 
flinches in battle. And the nation should by action mark 



432 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

its attitude alike toward the fighter in war and toward the 
child-bearer in peace and war. The vital need of the na- 
tion is that its men and women of the future shall be the 
sons and daught-ers of the soldiers of the present. Excuse 
no man from going to war because he is married ; but put 
all unmarried men above a fixed age at the hardest and 
most dangerous tasks ; and provide amply for the children 
of soldiers, so as to give their wives the assurance of ma- 
terial safety. 

In such a matter one can only speak in general terms 
At this moment there are hundreds of thousands of gal- 
lant men eating out their hearts because the privilege of 
facing death in battle is denied them. So there are in- 
numerable women and men whose undeserved misfortune it 
is that they have no children or but one child. These sol- 
diers denied the perilous honor they seek, these men and 
women heart-hungry for the children of their longing 
dreams, are as worthy of honor as the men who are war- 
riors in fact, as the women whose children are of flesh and 
blood. If the only son who is killed at the front has no 
brother because his parents coldly dreaded to play their 
part in the Great Adventure of Life, then our sorrow is not 
for them, but solely for the son who himself dared the Great 
Adventure of Death. If, however, he is the only son because 
the Unseen Powers denied others to the love of his father 
and mother, then we mourn doubly with them because their 
darling went up to the sword of Azrael, because he drank 
the dark, drink proffered by the Death Angel. 

In America to-day ail our people are summoned to service 
and sacrifice. Pride is the portion only of those who know 
bitter sorrow or the foreboding of bitter sorrow. But all of 
us Mho give service, and stand ready for sacrifice, are the 
torch-bearers. We run with the torches until we fall, con- 
tent if we can then pass them to the hands of other runners. 
The torches whose flame is brightest are borne by the gallant 
men at the front, and by the gallant women whose husbands 
and lovers, whose sons and brothers are at the front. These 
men are high of soul, as they face their fate on the shell- 
shattered earth, or in the skies above or in the waters be- 
neath ; and no less high of soul are the women with torn 
hearts and shining eyes ; the girls whose boy lovers have 
been struck down in their golden morning, and the mothers 



THE GREAT ADVENTURE 433 

and wives to whom word has been brought that henceforth 
they must walk in the shadow. 

These are the torch-bearers ; these are they who have 
dared the Great Adventure. 

THE MAN AS I KNEW HIM 

Having been requested by the New York Methodist 
Preachers' Meeting to prepare an estimate of Mr. 
Roosevelt's character and service to be spread on the 
minutes of the meeting as a permanent record, I read 
such a paper at the Memorial service on January 13th, 
which was addressed by Hon. Chauncey Depew and 
Bishop Luther B. Wilson. The title of that paper was, 
' ' Theodore Roosevelt, the Man, as I Knew Him, ' ' and 
was as follows : 

Theodore Roosevelt was one of the three greatest men 
the nation ever produced, and the greatest, the most widely 
known, and intensely loved man in the world at the time 
of his death. 

Theodore Roosevelt was great every way ; all the depart- 
ments of his mind were developed in colossal proportion. 
Few men ever had broader mental vision, or saw farther 
into questions and the years than he. His intellectual viril- 
ity was expressed in the mastery of three learned profes- 
sions. By his Harvard course, his omnivorous reading and 
painstaking study he became an accomplished scholar, ac- 
quired an excellent literary style, and became the author of 
a score of volumes that will have a permanent place in the 
best literature of the nation. He was passionately fond of 
nature, he loved the flowers, the rocks, the stars, the birds, 
the insects, and the big game of the forest, and in his study 
of them took long journeys to find out about them, and the 
specimens he secured often at the risk of his life made him 
a scientist of no mean service or fame. His books on na- 
ture study are attractive, and will be sources of informa- 
tion and education to the student for years to come. He 
was a statesman of the highest rank; as a practical politi- 
cian he was the equal of Martin Van Buren, or Lincoln. 



434 THEODORE EOOSEVELT 

His administration as President was one of the most suc- 
cessful and wtiolesome in tlie history of the republic. It 
held back and defeated the illegal combination of interests 
that prostituted the State Legislatures and National Con- 
gress with money and threatened the destruction of our 
form of government. The people believed so much in his 
wisdom, his honor and loyalty that he was as potential as 
a statesman without office as he was with it. 

Great as was his intellect, he was greater in his affec- 
tions. The greatest-hearted men are the greatest men. Fame 
has never given a permanent record to one of a little mean 
or selfish spirit. His heart, which cherished his wife and 
children as idols, was wide enough to take in the inhabi- 
tants of our country and of the wide world as his brothers 
and sisters, whom he loved better than himself and to 
whose advancement and happiness he devoted his strenuous 
life, a heart large' enough to take in the woes and wrongs 
of the oppressed peoples of the world, and which like his 
Master's broke in the garden of sorrow in his agonizing 
struggle to bear the world's burdens, and right its wrongs. 
He was a republican of republicans, a democrat of demo- 
crats, and the idol of the common people of our country 
and the world. Great as he was in intellect, broad as were 
his affections, he was greatest in his character. The sum- 
mit and crown of his greatness was his goodness. No man 
living had a keener sense of the right, nor a stronger pro- 
pulsion toward it, nor an intenser hatred of wrong, nor 
a deeper determination to fight it, nor moi-e all daring cour- 
age to overthrow it. His integrity was as scrupulous as 
that of Cato, Aristides, or "Honest. Old Abe," whom he 
loved so well and so faithfully copied. That tongue would 
blister that would charge a single penny of fraud, or an 
intentional act of wrong-doing against him. 

We are most proud and grateful to record the fact 
that Theodore Roosevelt was a Christian in deed and in 
truth; that he had implicit faith in the Bible as the 
standard of individual character, and national virtue; that 
he believed in Jesus Christ the Son of Gad as the Saviour 
of the world, and as his own personal Redeemer; that loy- 
alty to that Christ who died for him and a desire to estab- 
lish his Kingdom in the hearts and institutions of men 
was the chief motive which impelled him in his private 
and public life. We are grateful to God for having raised 



THE GREAT ADVENTURE 435 

up Theodore Roosevelt in our day and generation to show 
how large and good a man can grow to be who feeds on 
the Bible and Christ as the bread of life, and how nearly- 
universal in its influence is such a life irradiated, inspired, 
and impelled by God's Holy Spirit. 

We rejoice at the clear views our great and good friend 
had of the future life, and of his confident expectation of 
enjoying a blessed immortality there. 

We call Theodore Roosevelt dead, but in reality he has 
just begun to live in this world. For twenty years he has 
so impressed his views, his deep moral convictions on the 
people of this country, and has had such a sacred place in 
their personal confidence and love, that he has done much 
to shape the events that have given us a greater and safer 
democracy, and his influence on the popular heart for the 
best things for the individual and state will continue in 
ever-widening circles for generations to come. Now that 
America has become a world power and Roosevelt, a world- 
wide figure, has become a world-wude favorite, his words 
and services and sacrifices will have still a potential in- 
fluence in the settlement of those problems that involve 
world-wide democracy and universal Christianity. The im- 
mortality of the cause after the leader had dropped out is 
mentioned by Mr. Roosevelt in a speech made in Carnegie 
Hall in 1912, which is as follows : 

"The leader for the time being, whoever he may be, is 
but an instrument, to be used until broken and then to be 
cast aside; and if he is worth his salt he will care no 
more when he is broken than a soldier cares when he is 
sent where his life is forfeit in order that the victory may 
be won. In the long fight for righteousness the watchword 
for all of us is, spend and be spent. It is a little matter 
whether any one man fails or succeeds ; but the cause shall 
not fail, for it is the cause of mankind. We here in Amer- 
ica, hold in our hands the hope of the world, the fate of 
the coming years; and shame and disgrac'e will be ours if 
in our eyes the Ught of high resolve is dimmed, if we trail 
in the dust the golden hopes of men." 

So long as the Hudson shall flow or the Atlantic roll, 
so long as snow-capped mountain range shall speak to 
snow-capped mountain range and snow-capped mountain 
range to the blue sea ; so long as the violet shall speak of 



436 THEODORE ROOSEVELT 

modesty, the lily of purity or the rose tell of love, so long 
as there shall be the appreciation of the true, the beautiful, 
the good, the heroic in human conduct, so long will Theo- 
dore Roosevelt live in the hearts and institutions of our 
country, In the hearts and institutions of mankind. 



THE END 



INDEX 



Abbot, Lyman, estimate of 
Roosevelt, 409; warm per- 
sonal friend of, 409. 

Address in Church, citizen 
and public man, 143. 

Assembly, State, candidate 
for, 72; banquet given. 72, 
made canvass for. 73; mem- 
ber of 74; Columbia stu- 
dents and professors aided 
in election, 74. 

Assemblyman, as, f^'^J 
speech, 74; was head or 
committee of cities, (4; pro- 
moted tenement house re- 
form, 74; investigated ad- 
ministration of N. Y. C, 75; 
exposed its' corruption, 75; 
denounced a Supreme 
judge, 76; became national 
hero, 78; fights corrupt in- 
fluence on members, 76; be- 
came state leader of his 
party, 79. 

Assistant Secretary of the 
Navy, appointed by McKln- 
ley. 121; got navy in shape, 
122; sent Dewey famous 
cablegram, 122. 

Bible, address on, 307. 

Big Stick, 214. . 

Birthplace and boyhood, 37; 
Theodore Roosevelt's an- 
cestors, 39; grandfather a 
genius. 39; his father 
wealthy merchant, 39; 
mother distinguished 
Southern family, 40; rug- 
ged characteristics from 
father. 40; boy was typical 
American,. North and South 
in veins, 41; strict moral 
teaching by mother and 
aunt. 41. ^gg 



Books, read to him, 42; read 
by him, 4.2; on, nature, ad- 
venture, Indian life, hunt- 
ing, morals, religion, Af- 
rica in childhood, 42; au- 
thor, 217. 

Burial of Roosevelt, 348. 

Business men visit White 
House, 209. 

Boxing taught, 49; law 
against, 138. 

Boyhood, playful in amuse- 
ment and exercise, 43; pa- 
thetic care of father and 
mother, 48, other boya 
thrashed hirn, 48; took box- 
ing lessons, 49; religious 
instruction of, 50; handi- 
capped by riches. 51; 
presidents sons of poverty, 
51. 

Civil Service Commissioner, 
appointed. 95; fought spoils 
system. 96; as President 
commends law for Phllli- 
pines. 97; commends law at 
home. 98. 

Coal Miners' Strike, settled, 
215. 

Conservation, of forest, field 
and stream, 218. 

Cove School, 335; Roosevelt 
30 years its friend, 336. 

Cutler, A. H.. Tutor, life-long 
friend of Roosevelt, fi"; 
tells incident about knowl- 
edge of books, 61. 

Day, Chancellor, J. R., me- 
morial address of, 421. 

Death of Roosevelt, 345; the 
great adventure, 429. 

Degrees, conferred by foreign 
universities. 231. 

Depew, Chauncey, address of, 
357. 



440 



INDEX 



Derby, Ethel Carow Roose- 
velt, 272; romance concern- 
ing, 271; Doctor fought 
through war in Prance, 273; 
lieutenant-colonel, 273. 

Elk Horn Ranch, bought, 84; 
ranch life described, .85. 

Fkther, wisely endowed son, 
53. 

Faults, he had them, 238; he 
said so, 238; supposed 
faults his strongest ele- 
ments, 239. 

Forest and mountain, evolu- 
tion of, 91. 

Gibbons, Cardinal, estimate of 
Roosevelt, 299. 

Goethals, Gen., on Roose- 
velt's relation to Canal, 
185. 

Governorship, nomination for, 
131; nomination opposed by 
Senator Piatt, 131; after- 
ward favored by him. 136; 
B. B. Odell favored Roose- 
velt's candidacy and elec- 
tion, 137; elected by 17,786 
majority, 137; administration 
one of reform, 137; in Civil 
Service, 137; appointment 
of tenement house commis- 
sioner, 137; securing eight- 
hour law, 138; in employers' 
liability act, 138; protec- 
tion of women and chil- 
dren in industry, 138; in 
exposure of political cor- 
ruption in New York t.'ity, 
138. 

Grave, of Roosevelt overlook- 
ing Sound, 348; selected by 
himself, 348; visit, to, 348. 

Great Heart, Bunyan's, 329; 
protected women and chil- 
dren. 330; knew and loved 
children, 331-333: was loved 
by them, 331: kisses little 
Invalid girl, 333. 

Halford, Col. E. W., tells in- 
cident of quarrel with 
prominent Congressman, 
102. 

Harvard career, 61. 

Havs, Will H., address on 
Roosevelt, 395. 

Hercules, choice of, 55; par- 
allel of, 55: Roosevelt a, 
213; marks of similarity be- 
tween two as pugilist, war- 
rior, driver, hunter, lion- 
killer, patriot, wielder of 
big stick, 213. 



Home, influence on destiny, 
51; of boyhood Ideal, 53; 
type of American home, 
53; W. 57th St., moved to, 
when Theodore was 16, 
54; joined church, 55; laid 
mental and moral plans for 
future, 55. 

Hughes, Charles E., renomi- 
nation for Governor urged 
by Roosevelt, 203; address 
of before Republican Club, 
383. 

Jefferson, Thomas, Louisiana 
Purchase, 89. 

Kipling, Rudyard, sent mes- 
sage, 350. 

Lane, Secy. P. K., tribute of, 
420. 

Law School, entered, 71. 

Lincoln, copied Washington, 
28. 

Lodge, Henry Cabot, memo- 
rial address, 369; what 
Roosevelt said of him, 370. 

Longworth, Alice Lee, mar- 
ried in White House, 274; 
Nicholas, 274; member of 
Congress, 274. 

Mayor of New York, ran for, 
95. 

McNichols, J. W., chum of 
boyhood, 44; incidents he 
relates, 45. 

Merchant of New York pays 
tribute, 412. 

Messages of condolence. 349; 
from King and Queen of 
England, Lloyd George, 
Rudyard Kipling and Presi- 
dent Wilson, 349-350. 

Moral heroism, manifested, 
110; his life was threat- 
ened, 112; promoted brave 
policeman, 113; writes let- 
ter defying foes, 117; 
fought spoils system, 96; 
Illegal trusts, 197: speech 
after being shot, 236; gives 
boys to war, 259; brave In 
Quentin's death, 270. 

Mother, true, gives boys to 
die for country, 431; hero- 
ism of matches that of 
soldier, 431; bears and 
gives children to die for 
country, 431. 

Nation, great when citizens 
die for it, 431. 

National parks, established, 
219. 

National Republican Conven- 
tion in 1884, 80; delegate 
to, 80; favored Edmunds 



INDEX 



441 



for President, 80; Blaines 
election forced him into po- 
litical retirement, 80. 

Nature, fondness of, 43; hia 
teacher, 83; important to 
health and education, 83. 

Naturalist, Roosevelt as, 218; 
knew name of every flower, 
plant, tree, 218; bird, 
knowledge of and care for, 
219. 

Nobel Peace Prize, received, 
216. 

Oyster Bay, friends, inter- 
view with, 279; beautiful 
incidents related by, 279; 
gave receptions to them, 
282; Masonic Lodge, at- 
tended, 283; gave money to, 
285; attended Episcopal 
church every Sunday morn- 
ing, 287; Dr. Talmadge, rec- 
tor, tells devotion to local 
church, of his presence at 
baptism of grandchildren 
and his last communion 
service, 285. 

Panama Canal, Roosevelt's 
relation to, described by 
Goethals, 185; former at- 
tempts, failures, 182; 
planned by Roosevelt, 182; 
Gen. Goethals head of, 183; 
sanitary regulations of, 
183; building of, 183; he- 
roic service in, 184. 

Paradox, A, 65. 

Parker, John M., estimate of 
Roosevelt, 221. 

Peace between Russia and 
Japan secured, 216. 

Pinchot, Clifford, estimate of 
Roosevelt, 402. 

Pioneer Civilization, great- 
ness of, 89. 

Police Commissioner, appoint- 
ed by Mayor Strong, 107; 
member Board of Health, 
116. 

Prairie, evolution of, 90; 
Roosevelt's relation to, 91. 

Problem of life and death, 
429. 

Progressive, candidate for 
Presidency, 233; received 
4,126,020 votes, 234; re- 
turned to Republican party 
without revenge and be- 
came its leader, 237; shot 
by assassin, 235; tragical 
speech after being shot, 
236. 

Prohibition, war demanded, 
325; constitutional national 



declared for, 325; aided by 
woman suffrage, 326; asked 
Congress to pass woman 
suffrage bill, 326. 

Ranch life, a factor in great- 
ness, 83. 

Roosevelt, Theodore, immor- 
tality of, 26, 435; copied 
Washington and Lincoln, 
29; letter about Lincoln, 
29; comparison of Washing- 
ton and Lincoln, 32; ranch- 
man, 86; practical cowboy, 
86; whipped drunken loaf- 
er, 87; first city man made 
President, 88; reveals a 
heart secret, 193; worships 
with plain people, 197; felt 
divinely called to fight il- 
legal trusts, 197; asks for 
renomination of Hughes, 
206; as President, 163-177; 
vast knowledge, 210; his 
quick decision, 210; busi- 
nesslike method, 210; his 
religion, 291; joined St. 
Nicholas Dutch Reformed 
Church, 291; Dr. Ludlow's 
account of, 292; a mighty 
religious believer, 292; a 
miglity religious actor, 292; 
preached great sermon in 
Oyster Bay Church, 295; 
commends young minister 
going out as missionary, 
296; his denominational 
breadth illustrated at White 
House, 298; Cardinal Gib- 
bons estimate of, 299; Rev. 
Mac Leod commends his 
breadth, 300; Rabbi Piera 
Mendes, tribute to, 300; op- 
posed return of intoxicants 
to canteen, 319; condemns 
collusion of saloons with 
corrupt politicians, 323; 
made address on Bible, 307; 
as literature, 308; the basis 
of individual and public 
morals, 308; faithful teach- 
ing of it to children, 311; 
the Christ, the hope of the 
world, 313; demands prac- 
tical service, 313; a mighty 
giant, 340; as naturalist 
and man, 222; and Hercules, 
parallel between, 214, 215, a 
mighty hunter. 225; kills 
his first grizzly. 225; gets 
his first lion, 226; African 
trip, 229; South American 
tours, 231; explored River 
of Doubt, 231; death, 345; 
at home. 345; told Amos 



442 



INDEX 



turn out light and went to 
sleep, 345; proceeded by a 
year of Illness, 346; funeral 
service simple by Dr. Tal- 
madge, 347; floral tributes 
at, 347; burled in little 
cemetery near his home, 
348. 

Roosevelt Theodore, Sons, all 
four went to Harvard, 259; 
commissioned officers, 259. 

Roosevelt, Mrs. Theodore, re- 
ceives pension, 420; mis- 
tress at Sagamore Hill, 275. 

Roosevelt, Archibald Bullock, 
263; critically wounded, 
264; writes for magazine, 
264; a captain, 264. 

Roosevelt, Kermit, 265; ac- 
companied father on trip to 
Africa and South America, 
267; British captain in 
Mesopotamia, 266; captain 
In U. S. Army, 266; great 
hunter, 266. 

Roosevelt, Quentln, 268; bril- 
liant, 268; brave, 268; mar- 
tyr, 269; first lieutenant, 
268; killed in desperate air 
battle, 270; buried by 
enemy, 270; mother visits 
grave, 272. 

Roosevelt, Theodore. Jr., se- 
verely wounded, 260; lieu- 
tenant-colonel, 260; address 
Republican club, 261; enters 
politics, 261; his wife in 
war work in Prance, 262. 

Roosevelt, Robert, law office, 
71; Theodore a student in, 
71. 

Rough Rider, raised regiment 
of, 123; Governor Roose- 
velt's address to, 125; 
Leonard Wood, Colonel of, 
125; shot and killed Span- 
ish sniper, 124. 



Sagamore Hill, visit to, 245; 
house vacant, 245; weeping 
elm near, 245; Charles Lee, 
colored chauffeur and a 
friend talks about master — 
his walks, works, sport, 
horses, Archie's pony, dogs, 
etc., 246; boxes for birds, 
250; children of the gar- 
dener, 251; Its memories of 
childhood, 253; Mrs. Roose- 
velt mistress of, 254. 
Shaw, Albert, on Roosevelt 

as President, 163-177. 
Sunday saloon, closed by 

Commissioner, 107. 
"The Great Adventure," 429. 
Vice-Presidency, did not de- 
sire it, 157; was forced on 
him by Philadelphia Con- 
vention, 158; became Presi- 
dent when McKinley died, 
Sept. 13, 1901, 159. 
Washington, Lincoln, Roose- 
velt, compared, similarity, 
27; dissimilarity, 24. 
Wealth, blessing to Theodore 

Roosevelt the boy, 52. 
Wilderness of the West, his 
description of, 84; hunting 
trips In, 85; the people of, 
84. 
Wilson, Bishop L. B., address 

of 362-365. 
Wilson, Woodrow, President, 
cables beautiful message, 
350. 
Winning of the West by 

Roosevelt, 91. 
Woman Suffrage, Roosevelt 
champion of, 325; passed, 
326. 
World War, divinely called to 
aid, 199; great figure in, 
237. 
Wood. Gen. Leonard, estimate 
of life-long friend, 419. 



